Chained
by Sofsofi
Summary: Human beings were such twisted, bizarre beings, who could easily choke on happiness or…find solace in what once poisoned them./Because Sakura had interlaced their fingers and whispered a sincere apology when she had bound them forever/
1. Chapter 1

Hi guys! The following story has been going on my mind for quite a while now, so I decided to gather the courage to finally write (or type) it down. It's somewhat planned in my mind, but I hope it will come alright and that you will enjoy it. If you do, please review. If you don't, tell me what's wrong (I love constructive criticism) and I'll consider. Hope you're going to have as much fun reading the story as I have writing it.

**Edit:** Complete re-writing of this chapter, because I don't like the first version now, after reading it again and comparing it with how I wrote the recent chapters. Hope you'll find this version more satisfactory.

**Disclaimer:**Do I really have to say it? And would you believe me if I told you I owned Naruto? Guess not. And you'd be right.

* * *

**Chapter 1:** Canto III (Intro)

Sasuke closed his eyes for a while, opened them, scrutinized his surroundings, before finally closing them and leaning against the damp wall tiredly. There was no difference whatsoever: everything around him stayed humid, cold and dark. As he listened to the muted dripping of water from the archaic piping overhead, he faintly wondered if that cell wasn't some long-forgotten dungeon Ibiki ushered him in, in the hopes it would erase him from existence. In a way, he was hoping it would, too.

They had tortured him. Pierced him, broke his limbs and lacerated his flesh, mended him just so that they could toy around with him again and again and **again**. He still hadn't said a word. After some more curses and shouts and broken ribs and mayhem and mind-fucking-attempts, they just had to face the truth.

You can't break someone who's already in pieces, already swallowed by darkness and eaten up by demons of guilt, shock and numbness. Haunting, whiskered demons, with _blue-blue-blue-as-the-sky_ eyes and apologetic smiles that spoke of harsh goodbyes.

_Damn it. Damn it all. Damn __**you**__._

Anger flew through him on dark wings of raw hurt. That stupid, stupid man. That _stupid-retarded-selfish_ man.

Chapped nails cut hard into his palm as he curled his hands into strained, white-knuckled fists.

_He's-gone-he's-gone-he's-gone._

And it was _**his**_ fault.

* * *

She didn't know why she would _always-always-__**always**_ wind up there. Her feet would somehow walk on their own and take her to the one place she shouldn't be, especially in these uncertain, brittle, after-war times. It was aggravating. It was **irritating**, the way she seemed to still need him, even though he was forever lost to her, even though her brain registered completely that he was out of her reach, even though she **knew** that the grave before her held nothing but cold, indifferent remains. And yet, and yet…here she was.

Her fingers absent-mindedly ran over the marble tombstone, caressing the peaceful, carved name.

"You're incredibly, marvelously _**stupid**_, do you know that?" she whispered, voice strained. "How could you think for a second that I could _ever_ be whole again, with you gone?"

_Stupid-stupid-stupid_.

She hated this. She hated this feeling of being stuck somewhere between past and present, not knowing how to fit in a reality without his goofy grins, his kind words and his warm presence. She hated how everyone was trying to move on, how everyone was trying to gather shards of today to mend tomorrow, how the sun was still rising and the birds still singing and the trees still murmuring nature's soft, immortal words of wisdom, life and decay, how the world was indifferent to his death.

_Your death is killing me, stupid. _

And still her green eyes remained dull and sickeningly dry.

"The counselors have locked him up and tortured him for 'vital information to the village's future'," Sakura sighed tiredly, her fingers gripping the marble stone a little harder than she intended. "They are afraid he may start talking about the Uchiha genocide, and I don't know what their plans are, but they seem as charming as their wrinkled little hypocritical faces."

It was so un-shinobi-like to talk to graves, really. But she needed to tell him, if only to strengthen her resolve and stop swaying. For the month and a half that followed his death, she had been living a lethargic life, the raw emotions and pain and untold whispers of regret claiming her heart. She had been lost, at first. Then sheer fury had taken over when she realized that Naruto, the **indestructible** Naruto was dead, and _that guy_, that **insufferable** man who had betrayed them both, tried to kill them, and wouldn't have redeemed himself if it weren't for Naruto, was alive and breathing. She knew that, if she saw Sasuke, she could break all of his ribs without being able to help herself. She could kill him, and _no one would stop her_, because no one saw him as worthy of outliving Naruto. And that scared her. It was still _scaring the living shit out of her_. For if she killed that one person Naruto had sacrificed his life to save, wouldn't she be betraying his memory? Wouldn't she be killing her last remaining connection to a past that felt centuries ago, a past with two bickering teammates that were more friends than rivals, and a porn-addict teacher who cared about them more than he wanted to let on?

And so she had decided not to see Sasuke. For both his protection and her sanity. At least until she figured out what she was to do now, without Kakashi, who died facing Kabuto, and without Naruto.

But hesitation could only last so long.

"No one needed you to be a hero, Naruto. We wanted you alive._ I_ wanted you alive," she whispered. "But," she started, her voice steadily gaining resolution, "I know what you would have done, and I _will_ protect your resolve. This is a promise of a lifetime," she added, a sad smile adorning her lips, her fingers gently making out the carved name.

_I know what to do now._

* * *

_Come in already_, Sasuke thought, irritated.

They had been standing at his cell's door for quite a while now. When footsteps had first shaken him out of his cold apathy, he had first thought that the guard was yet again bringing him a food tray he would scarcely touch. Then he made out, along with the abnormally rigid sentinel's, lighter, scurrying footsteps he couldn't recognize. As the party made it to his door, Sasuke faintly wondered about the stranger's identity. Hadn't Ibiki experimented on him enough twisted, sick paths of pain and blood? Or had the Hokage finally decided to try and wring the truth out of him herself?

The two people outside his door had had a brief, hushed conversation, and the low mumbling of the Chuunin guarding his cell covered the soft whispers of his interlocutor, but the latter's murmur seemed too delicate to be a man's. For the first time since his imprisonment, anticipation slowly flew through him, awakening him slowly from the state of numb stupor that had taken over him since…since _that_ day.

_It's not her_, he reprimanded himself when the surge of eagerness persisted, sharpening his senses.

_She hasn't come and she won't._

Why was part of him still waiting for her anyway?

The Sakura he knew would have rushed to his side as soon as everything came to end. The Sakura he now believed to expect would have come at him the next day, fully intent on passing judgment on him. But nothing of the sort happened.

It had taken two entire days for Naruto's death to fully sink in, for his mind to embrace that surreal fact and equate it with the rigid reality. Scarcely had he risen from unconsciousness _that day_ that he found himself bound by chakra-restricting manacles as an Anbu announced in a dull voice that 'Uzumaki Naruto had unfortunately passed away' and that they had 'some questions to ask him'. Ibiki's special interrogation force had then briskly, violently taken him into custody to "question" him, but his brain was still frozen, any nervous connection severed, burned by the vision of the blonde's assured, confident retreating back, a black turmoil setting ablaze his insides as the bile rose to his mouth, but his lips had been sealed, by despair or shock, he couldn't tell. It was perhaps that state of petrified apathy that saved his sanity for the first two days, which had been particularly gruesome, the torture team showing wounded, vengeful fierceness.

Then reality kicked in. Naruto was dead.

Naruto was dead.

**Naruto** (_sincere-unwavering-loyal_-**brother**) was dead.

As dead as Itachi.

What had happened next was unclear in his mind. He only remembered that it had taken three Jounin to immobilize him as a frightened young medic tried to inject a sedative into his thrashing arms.

When he had woken up at last, the nagging feeling that had been bothering him all throughout the previous days, the feeling that there was something, something really important he hadn't attended to, suddenly made sense and turned to _someone_ he had completely neglected and had momentarily forgotten, amidst the chaos.

_Sakura_.

He hadn't seen Sakura. For the week he'd been in Konoha, Sakura _hadn't been_ there.

His insides had then turned from lead to molten magma as he thought that there was a possibility that she hadn't survived the massive attack.

No. She couldn't have died. She _couldn't have_. If she had, then-

Then his sanity would just cave in, crushed by too much guilt, too much pain, too much sorrow.

She _had_ to be alive and well. Absolutely had to. The idea of being the sole survivor of Team 7, that there was no one, absolutely no one left from those who had once cared for and strived to save him, was too unbearable for him to believe in.

But the Sakura he knew would've been at his hospital bedside! He would have woken up to her crying form, and, torn between grief and relief, she would have been the one to announce Naruto's death.

Doubt gnawing at his heart had reached such intolerable levels that he had asked one of the interrogators, pride be damned, and the young woman with purple clouded eyes had seemed to take pity on him and told him that Sakura was alive and well, having suffered only minor injuries.

Something akin to relief had then washed over him.

_Sakura was alive._ Although he would never admit it, part of him, that annoying, frank, truthful part of him, knew that it was that sole idea that kept him sane. Or, more accurately, that saved whatever piece of sanity he still had left.

Then, Sasuke remembered that Sakura, alive and well, _still_ was nowhere to be seen. Not at his hospital bedside, not at that dungeon of a cell, not even at the torture chambers.

Reality came around again, and it had a curious taste of disbelieving dejection.

It wasn't that Sakura _couldn't_ come. Sakura _didn't want_ to come.

That was when Naruto's death had fully and completely registered in his brain, stricken by cold apathy.

Naruto died. Naruto died, and he hadn't been able to save him. After all the lives Sasuke had taken, he hadn't been able to save the one that mattered.

There was no turning back, no reconciliation, no reunion. The past was forever erased, out of reach, unattainable. _He_ could no longer reach _himself_.

Who was he to Sakura now? He was the traitor who had survived the only man who had acknowledged and loved her. Sakura wouldn't be coming to get him back together and reconcile him with himself, she would be coming to take the life of the unworthy. _And it would only be justice_.

The door's unlocking sound resounded grimly, tearing Sasuke away from his dark broodings. Unaccustomed to the uncertain, dim torches' light, his eyes could only make out shadows before distinguishing two silhouettes: the hunched, tenser-than-usual guard's, and a leaner one. A much, much leaner one.

Unsure silence reigned as the visitors simply stood there while half Sasuke's mind waited for his vision to clear out, whereas the other half bathed in soft apathy, already knowing.

_It's her. _

Her stance was stiffer than he remembered, but it was undoubtedly Sakura standing at his cell's door. His eyes instantly searched hers, trying to unveil and pry into her heart and mind like he used to, and his intent gaze collided with a hard, faint green glare.

_And so the end had finally come._

Suddenly, it seemed as though lethargy's silk, trite veil slid off Sasuke's mind and he briskly reverted to something akin to his 'default' self. It wasn't until that very moment that he realized that a shadow of a smirk was struggling to make itself shown on his lips. He slowly got up, surreptitiously leaning on the wall. The aura he felt **pounding** around her was all but amenity, and it amused him to no end.

This was _Sakura_. This cold, dark, calmly dangerous vibes emanated from _Sakura_. It was all so absurd, so surreal, so _ridiculous_…He jerked back his head, closing his eyes.

"Took you long enough," he sighed disdainfully, his voice sounding hoarser than what he expected.

There a swift motion, a faint rustling sound, and Sasuke opened his eyes just in time to catch a stray ray of light's reflection in Sakura's emerald pupils…and only discerned contemptuous, irate hatred before getting life knocked out of his lungs as she crashed him against the wall, an iron grip choking his throat.

Sakura had finally come to pass judgement upon him.

* * *

Sakura knew she should stay in control. She knew she had to, not only let him live, but protect his life. However, no sooner had her eyes laid on him that she felt her self-control slip away from her as she felt deadly rage build up on her. And when he _dared_ open his mouth like that, she lost it.

And now she was wondering what it would take to loosen her grip over his throat, because she couldn't do it. It was as though her mind and her body had been disconnected from one another, and she was watching his face getting paler at an aggravating speed without being able to stop herself from tightening her grasp. The guard, a middle-aged man with brownish black hair, was crying something to her (surely for her to stop), while trying to get her hands off him. But he was no match for her. With a swift chakra-charged fist, she sent the poor Chuunin on duty flying across the room, only for him to be knocked out from the shock with the wall.

_Damn, damn, damn…_

And what kept on infuriating her was the fact that Sasuke didn't defend himself. He didn't lift a finger to save his own life.

Sakura suddenly realized that Sasuke had closed his eyes, wistfully smirking. And that was when she came to her senses, and suddenly dropped her hands. She was panting, she noticed, and her hands were trembling, her vision blurred. Sasuke was taking quick, shallow breaths, coughing his insides out.

The young kunoichi suddenly realized that she was still holding him firmly against the wall, and hastily took a step back, facing down, hearing her heartbeat pound madly in her temples.

_Calm yourself._

At last, she dared to look at the young Uchiha.

His breath was a little quicker than normal, but seemed unscathed otherwise.

The guard was softly moaning, still unconscious. She just hoped she didn't hurt him badly…

Sakura turned again her attention to Sasuke, only to find him staring at her, his face as expressionless as ever.

This was no good.

Just by staring at those blank eyes, she felt rage welling up inside her again. If this deaf silence lingered any longer, she would surely go on rampage mode again. And there would surely be some rib-breaking…

She tried to speak in an even, casual tone. She failed miserably.

"Why didn't you fight back?" she asked, voice dripping with bitterness.

Their eyes never broke contact, obsidian pouring darkness into jade. Then slowly, a smirk, a weird, almost sad smirk tugged his lips upward.

"Hn."

The anger she had been trying to master leaked off control again, and, before she knew it, she was leaping on him, fist forward. Her hand collided with his jaw with tremendous speed and strength, and the impact had his head dangerously collide with the wall.

_**Shit. **_

_Why_ wasn't he trying to avoid any of her assaults?

She had only been able to prevent herself from adding chakra to the punch. She should really work on keeping her composure, she thought as she saw him cough blood.

"I asked a question," she spoke through gritted teeth.

* * *

He wiped the liquid coming out from his mouth, and took a look at it. It looked like blood (_red-red-red-bitterly-red), _it tasted like blood. So blood was still running in his veins after all. It was somewhat grimly amusing.

_She's waiting_, his brain reminded him, wisely whispering that he could do without punches.

But he couldn't help it. As hard as it was to admit, her anger had been fascinating. For someone who had only been absorbed by his own darkness like himself, it was fascinating to witness someone else's. Especially if it was Sakura (_sweet-gentle-smiling_).

_She's waiting. _

"It's just that…"

His words faded away as he began to realize how hoarse his voice sounded. How long had it been since the last time he spoke to a human being? His voice was hoarse and it tickled when he talked. Funny.

"It doesn't matter anymore…"

_They're dead._

"Whether I live or not…"

_The both of them._

"…doesn't matter anymore."

_My-fault-my-fault-my-fault._

Sakura suddenly ushered him against the wall and began shaking him violently.

"Are you _stupid_? Are you really that _damn stupid_ to think some atrocious _crap_ like that?"

Sakura was clutching the fabric of his shirt. Hard. Her hands were trembling, surely yearning to destroy his very core. But she held back, and Sasuke wondered for a brittle moment at the reason behind (and marveled somehow at) that patience, when he would whole-heartedly let her finish him off.

"He's dead. He died. Naruto died," Sakura whispered softly.

He _knew_ that. He had been _there_. Still, hearing her whisper it with that brittle voice made it struck him with all the power of a sorrow he'd been carrying silently.

"Naruto died," she repeated.

"I _know_," he growled (Had he just sounded threatening? That was absurd.)

"He's gone."

"I KNOW!"

"THEN ACT LIKE IT! WHO DO YOU THINK HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR, ASSHOLE? HE SAVED THE VILLAGE, AND MAINLY YOUR SORRY ASS!"

She had let it out in one breath, making her pant to catch up again. When she laid eyes upon him again, the anger was gone. There was merely immense, exasperated, longing sorrow in them.

"You are his legacy. That's why it _does_ matter if you live or die. That's why I…"

She took the time to glance warily at the guard (Sasuke had completely forgotten about the poor guy) who was coming to consciousness again, before adding reluctantly:

"I'm going to protect your despicable, wretched self."

And with those last words, she left, without as much as a glance towards his crushed form.

* * *

**Author's note:** It's a little short, but it is kind of a prologue, just to put you in the story's mood. Hope it got your interest ticked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author note:** Second chapter! As I write this note, chapter three is finished (at long last), and I'm beginning the fourth. I would like so much to be more than just a chapter ahead of updating, but it's hard to find time when you're studying what I'm studying.

On a completely different subject, I just read the new chapter, and I'm both pleased to see Kakashi and mad at him. I won't say anything further, so as not to spoil people sticking to the anime, but I really hope Kishimoto-sensei doesn't screw it all up by, you know, making Kakashi do everything on his own.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. Really.

* * *

**Chapter 2:** Fight inside

Sakura returned the day after.

Sasuke hadn't expected that. He had thought that their _little-gentle-chitchat _had been too tense for her to want to see him so shortly after (and his body was still throbbing, too). He had been sitting in his dark corner, brooding over the dull pain that stung him every time he remembered her words (_despicable-wretched-despicable-wretched-despicable-wretched_) when he heard the door creak open and a wary voice whisper hesitantly: « Please, Haruno-san, don't…do anything too harsh-

"I won't, I promise", replied Sakura sheepishly. "I apologize again for yesterday."

"Please don't. You couldn't help it. Who would be able to anyway…with that kind of a man", the man added while looking patronizingly at Sasuke.

The last Uchiha glared at him. He could accept everything from _her_. Because she had been there the whole time. Because she had really cared. Because she understood and he would then understand her anger and disgust, for she _knew _everything and he _was _disgusted and furious with himself. Other people didn't have the right to judge him. They just took him as a rogue ninja who betrayed his homeland, brought chaos over their heads and was the reason their hero died. They would never try to dig deeper. Sakura was the only one who could be his judge, his executioner, his savior.

"I shall be off, then, Haruno-san", said the man, bowing his head a little.

Sakura had been turning her back on him the whole time. He didn't know how he felt about that. It didn't matter anyway.

_If I were to die-_

He heard her sigh softly. She was still not facing him. Still, it didn't matter.

_And Lord Knows I deserve it-_

The man had bowed to her, had talked to her with utmost respect, had been looking at her with deference. She was now an accomplished kunoichi, it seemed.

_The one and only- one and only one to take my life in a righteous punishment_

_Would be none other than you_

_I don't want __**anyone**__ but you._

* * *

Sakura was gathering up courage and patience. She wasn't looking forward to what was coming, but she _had_ to do it. When she thought about what Naruto's reaction would have been about yesterday's events, she decided to come back as soon as possible. After all, whether she liked it or not-

_He's my responsibility._

Before she could stop it, a soft sigh escaped her lips. _Inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale_…

She didn't feel ready to face him, but again she never would. She took one last deep breath, and at last turned to him.

Her eyes met his dull ones. There was no expression in them, apart from a faint hint of apprehension that disappeared the second Sakura realized what it had been. What was that for? She shrugged the thought off, though. It wasn't important to know anything about him. She was just supposed to keep him alive…and healthy. Period.

She knelt beside him, reaching for his arm. Sasuke didn't move, but it seemed that his entire body tensed up as though he was preparing for _an attack_. Sakura finally realized why Sasuke had looked at her with apprehension. He was thinking that she had come to land some fists upon him again. And he had intended not to defend himself as well.

It took her completely by surprise, and it was amusing in a way, too. Sasuke, almighty Sasuke in all his Uchihaness, didn't seem to appreciate her punches. She chuckled, then she waved her green-glowing hand before his eyes, as a clear proof that she was here for pacifist reasons only that day.

Sasuke's body relaxed a bit, but he seemed ticked off a little, perhaps because the amusement was showing up on her face. She silently gestured to his shirt (_dirty-brownish-maculated-bloody_). It took him a moment before comprehension dawned in his interrogating eyes, and he obediently took it off.

Sakura glanced at his battered, bruised torso. Every inch of flesh was bluish, burnt, scarred, and so heavily that it took her aback for a moment. She tried running a finger along his side, but she stopped when she saw him wince. So she hadn't been the only one to break a rib of his, had she?

She frowned. She had known that Ibiki's team had taken care of him, but she didn't expect it to be to _that_ extent.

She sighed again. Time to work.

* * *

Sasuke was observing her. As she was _carefully-carefully-carefully _passing her glowing hands on his body, he was staring at her face, landing his eyes on her for the first time since…well very long. He was making sure to carve every detail in his mind.

_Because I'm already beginning to forget what __**they**__ looked like._

He tried to brush that thought aside. Silence was lingering between them, but it was a peaceful kind of silence. He closed his eyes. Somehow, the sensation of Sakura's chakra circulating inside his worn out body, fixing up what he had endured and what _she_ made him endure, was refreshing and relaxing. It was as if she was bringing his limbs to life after a long slumber. He slowly opened an eye again, looking at her serious and professional expression with interest. She was _so_ focused that a light frown was marring her features, he closely observed, and her entire face was tensed up in an expression of utmost concentration. He had never seen her like that. It was as if the medic had taken over any other aspect of her personality.

He leaned against the wall, closing his eyes for good. He didn't know how healing chakra really worked, but it seemed to soothe something in him way deeper than just his muscles, flesh and bones. For the longest time, his mind had been torturing him, not stopping even when he was sleeping, racing, pacing, showing him horrors of the past and ghosts born from his darkness. But now…His thoughts were blank. He had stopped _thinking_, and that was mending a little of his lost soul.

And then, the feeling was suddenly gone. It vanished all at once, and _too-early-too-early-too-early_.

Someone flicked his forehead, and he groaned grumpily, massaging it. He reluctantly opened his eyes only to find her leaning next to him against the wall, looking exhausted. She must have reached her limit.

"Taking a little nap?"

She sounded teasing, and he noticed that he _somewhat-maybe-probably _appreciated it when her voice held no anger.

"I wasn't sleeping."

She gestured to his shirt.

"You can put it on. I'm done."

He cast a look at his torso. Well, he couldn't say that she was done, he mused. At all. He blinked a few times. It looked the same. Exactly the same. He glanced questioningly at her.

"You don't expect me to do everything in one day, do you?" She said. "I could just fix those broken ribs before running out of chakra."

Now that she mentioned it, he noticed that he could move more freely now. No pain coming from his sides hindered his movements anymore. He put on his shirt before returning his attention to her again.

"Sakura?" he whispered hesitantly, looking at her closed eyes.

"I'm awake", came her soft reply. "Just need some rest."

"Aah."

He was itching to ask her something, but he didn't know where to begin, how to voice it, or perhaps he was afraid to break this peaceful silence.

"_What"?_ Sakura inquired in an annoyed tone.

The young man tried not to show his confusion, as he saw her eyes open up fast and glare daggers at him.

_So much for the peaceful silence._

"You're _staring_ at me, how could I possibly _rest"_, she snapped at him. "What is it you want?"

He didn't know how she would take it if he asked her. He didn't want her to think that he was talking just to _talk_, but that he really wanted to know. But his silence seemed to anger her.

"Fine, how could I possibly get anything from you anyway? You're always…"

Her voice trailed off.

"It doesn't matter", she resumed in a weird tone. "What you would say, or hide…doesn't matter."

Those last words froze him. He didn't know why, but it wasn't supposed to be like that. She wasn't supposed to deny his very existence. Because she was-

_You are the only-_

"I shall be off, then", she said.

He instinctively grasped her wrist.

"Wait."

Sakura looked astounded. He didn't care, though. He _had_ to stop her from leaving.

"Let me go-"

"What day are we?" He interrupted her, finally letting out the words burning to be voiced.

* * *

Sakura didn't, would have never expected that. If him refusing her to leave was surprising, then she was now simply and utterly astonished. She carefully scrutinized his face. Was he joking? She suddenly remembered that the mere idea of Sasuke joking was laughable. No, he was serious. His eyes even showed something like curiosity, even avidity.

It then struck her that Sasuke had been cast away from life, but also from time. He must have lost all reference points regarding time, spending his days in that old deserted underground dungeon the counselors had chosen to cage him in, as far away as possible from any kind of interaction with the outside world, with the village, with life.

Which explained why he wanted so badly to know something as futile as the date, and why he had been hesitant to ask her, embarrassed and ashamed.

Was she to answer him, though? Being exiled from human life was part of his punishment, she thought. But…

_It's not right. Coming from _**them**_, it's not right. _

She had to assure that he lived. Not survive, but live.

"Tuesday", she heard herself answer with a far away tone. "Today is Tuesday", she repeated more firmly.

"Is it daytime or nighttime?" He blurted out again, impatient to know, embarrassed to show it.

"I…"She frowned. I think it must be around seven o'clock, seeing that I came-

"Evening?" He pressed, not caring to show his eagerness.

"Don't interrupt me", she retorted severely.

It seemed he suddenly realized how weird he sounded. He looked at her apologetically, his face returning to its expressionless mask. She sighed.

"Evening."

"How's the weather like?" he added hesitantly.

"_What?_"

He averted his gaze from her. He then began whispering softly, as if thinking aloud.

"I don't know how it is like, and I can't remember how it was like. Konoha's weather. I just recall that it seldom changed, but how was it? Was it really sunny and hot, or was there some wind that would bring some clouds? Was that a strong gust of wind, a breeze, was it there to begin with? Clouds, there were clouds, because everyone knew the lazy guy spent his day looking at them, but what kind? Cotton-like, white, big, small, hurrying through the sky or slowly soaring like a bird? How was the sky? Blue, right, but what kind of blue?"

Sakura didn't know how, or why, but those thoughts voiced out loud were breaking something in her. Sasuke wasn't aware of her presence anymore. He was talking to himself, in a steady, monotonous whisper, trying hard to extract whatever wavering memory was there. He was desperately trying to remember.

_Are you-_

"…Pale blue? A darker shade? "

It was the longest she had heard him talk, but she wanted it to end. She **had** to end it. Because _somehow-somehow-somehow_, it was painful to hear him.

_Afraid of forgetting?_

His grasp over her wrist had loosened, but his hand was still encircling hers. She took it, and pressed it. Hard.

"Stop it."

_Your desperate fight against the crumbling memories…I don't want to hear it._

His voice faded away as he came to his senses again.

For the first time, Sakura was relieved to see that his eyes were expressionless when he looked at her. She released his hand, and brought hers to her temples. She thought. Hard. Fast.

"I will come back tomorrow. Same time", she finally announced. "I'm not finished yet, and I don't think it'll be in a place like this. Some of your burns need intensive care, and this place is not appropriate for stuff like that. You'll also need further examination at the hospital."

-What are you saying? He frowned. I'm a prisoner. I can't-

"I'm saying that I'll make sure for you to be released", she stated firmly.

Something gleamed in his eyes for a very fleet moment, but it disappeared so fast that she couldn't figure out what it had been. He tore his eyes away from her.

"You can't. I deserve punishment."

"Who said you weren't going to be punished?"

* * *

"Who said you weren't going to be punished?"

He couldn't help but look at her again.

_Don't._

"The Jounins haven't decided on your sentence yet, but you're going to be on probation. And most likely condemned to community service for a long time."

"Sakura."

_Don't say it. Don't tell me._

_Don't make me hope to see for myself what color the sky is._

His voice had been firm, stern. She rose a brow at him, waiting for him to talk.

"They will condemn me to the death penalty."

"I won't allow that."

"You can't go against the counselors and angry Jounins."

"You don't know what I'm capable of. And Tsunade-shishou will stand by me."

"The Hokage herself can't go against the decision of the majority."

"I _will_ protect you!"

"_I deserve to die!"_

He didn't know what exactly happened next, but something slammed against his head, and a sensation of burning stung him in the cheek. She had slapped him.

"This…_This_ is what I hate most about you", she yelled, viridian eyes on fire. "Who do you think you are, deciding who deserves to die and who doesn't on your own?"

He saw her fist light up with chakra, _real_ chakra this time, bluish, flaring, chirping as her fury was growing even more. In slow motion, he saw her hand soar in the restricted space between, he then reflexively shut his eyes close, waiting for the impact, one unique thought racing through his mind and body.

_This is going to __**hurt**__._

But the pain never came. Instead he heard a monstrous, ground-breaking noise, and, when he opened his eyes, he saw Sakura's arm digging a _friggin'-freaking-big_ hole in the wall, crumbling blood-tainted (_her-blood-her-blood-her-blood_) chips flying everywhere. She must have deviated at the very last moment, in an attempt to hold back.

She showed no sign of pain, but again, it was hard to tell, for her hair was hiding her face (_her-eyes-her-eyes-I-can't-see-her-eyes_). She then started talking. It was a faint whisper at first, before growing in a spiteful, infuriated cry.

"It has always been this way. Itachi-"

Sasuke flinched.

_Why are you mentioning him?_

But Sakura continued, not paying him any attention.

"…deserves to die. Konoha deserves to die. Danzo deserves to die. The counselors deserve to die. Just stop trying to find _justice_ in a world where there isn't _any_ !"

She raised her head, pure loath in her glaring eyes. But he couldn't let that pass.

"Justice exists", he retorted stubbornly, clinging hard to that idea.

Justice existed. It had been the sole purpose of his _despicable-wretched _life. And if it ever weren't to be, then his whole life would have been meaningless.

"If there was anything such as justice", she replied coldly, with an even voice, staring deeply at him, "Naruto would be alive, and you _would_ be the one six feet under."

Shock. Utter, complete, shattering shock. He hadn't seen that coming.

He had known that she hated him. He had known that she wanted him dead. He had wished for her to take his life. But hearing that…Hearing that oddly arouse pain, somewhere in his chest.

He was still fighting to keep a stoic face when she scrambled to her feet, hurrying out of the cell.

"Wait."

He didn't really know why he said that. He didn't know _what_ to say to her now.

She stopped, still turning her back at him. But she _stopped_. She was waiting for whatever he was going to tell. Even though he was…what he was. He felt…grateful.

"Thank…"

"Don't", she interrupted him. "I don't want to hear it. It doesn't matter."

She paused.

-Tomorrow, five in the afternoon. And I'll make sure for you to be transferred from this shitty place.

She was about to leave again when he spoke again. Ever so softly.

"Sakura?"

She froze, not answering.

"See you tomorrow", he finally said, not really knowing what it meant, but feeling better after doing so.

He then closed his eyes, ready for darkness to engulf him once again, when he heard her whisper something briskly.

"See you tomorrow."

* * *

Sakura was staring absent-mindedly at the memorial stone. So many names, so many lives, gone, erased, vanished, like they never existed in the first place. All that lingered behind them was the memory they entrusted to those they left behind. And what for? Honor, love, revenge, pride, _justice_…It all sounded fake, lame and void, now that they were lost, dead and gone.

_What are we?_

_Ninja? Human beings? Tools? Flesh and blood?_

She heard a faint rustle in the leaves, then the sound of a swift landing behind her. She turned around to face whomever was there. Her face lit up in a small smile.

"Yamato-taichou!"

Although the Anbu seemed worn out, he managed to curl his lips upward in an exhausted smile at the sight of his former teammate.

"Sakura", he acknowledged with a curt nod.

He took a few steps closer to the memorial stone, a frown now marring his calm face.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

She took a look at the multiple places where his Anbu clothes were torn, the light scraps on his knees, the wound _thank-God-shallow _but infected, running from his right shoulder to his left side. The death of Kabuto must have come after a long and tiring battle, she mused. As the silence lingered, she remembered that she hadn't answered him yet. Not that it seemed to bother him, though, for he was absorbed by the prayer he was saying in respect to the souls that were now resting in the deepest of slumbers.

"Just paying a visit to old friends", she finally said with a sad voice.

"I see", he replied in an understanding tone.

The best thing about Yamato-taichou was that he _really_ understood. Sakura liked his company, now more than ever, because she felt she could stay with him for hours, without having the need to break the silence.

"You came here for a specific person."

She wasn't asking. She was stating a fact.

He smiled sadly.

"I don't know if sempai would want me to, but I feel the need to visit him once in a while."

"I see."

Silence again. A bird, somewhere in the high branches of the tree nearby, began singing a wistful and melancholic melody, which seemed to wipe some of their pain away, like a gentle hand would try to wipe the tears. Sakura had never heard something that beautiful.

"Sakura."

The voice held a seriousness that she had learned to dread. She sighed. The bird had stopped singing.

"His trial is this week."

"_What?_"

"His trial is this week", Yamato repeated, more firmly. "And the Jounins want him dead."

"They can't kill him", she said, unbelieving.

"He's a traitor who cooperated with the enemy."

"But he helped", Sakura replied, stubbornly. "He killed Akatsuki members. He helped against Madara."

"No one knows what _exactly_ happened against Madara", Yamato retorted grimly.

"_What?"_

Sakura wasn't believing her ears.

"What are you getting at?"

He slowly turned his head to face her, and she realized for the first time how tired the man was.

"You know what I mean", Sakura, he half-mumbled, half-sighed.

Silence.

She was intently averting his perspicacious gaze.

"No one knows what happened at the Hokage Mountain, when Madara went out of his mind and wanted to suck the entire village in that other dimension he controls. The only people present were Madara, Naruto and Sasuke. Two have died, while the latter refused to say anything about the matter. People start thinking that he might conceal something dark…"

"And you believe it?" She angrily spat.

"Sakura, he saved my life, Yamato reminded her. I _know_ the truth. But it's not enough. I'm not enough."

"I'll be there, Sakura quickly retorted. I'll testify. I'll tell about what I heard from Madara about the Uchiha genocide. I'll…"

"It's _pointless_," Yamato stressed, tiredness and Sakura's stubbornness getting the better of his patience. "What proofs do you have? None."

"They _don't_ have any proof or _reason_…"

"And what's more", Yamato carried on as if not interrupted, raising his voice to cover Sakura's protests, "you're not allowed to attend the trial."

For the first time, Sakura was speechless. That last bit of information didn't quite register.

"I beg you pardon?" She said slowly, voice full of incredulity.

She didn't like the look Yamato was giving her. His eyes were full of regret and _something-something-something_ that resembled…pity.

Pity. Blatant, flat pity.

The fleet second before he started talking, Sakura decided that she hated the look. And she hated what she was about to hear. In advance.

"You're not allowed to attend his trial."

Yamato's voice was soft. It was dripping with that sickening resolve to reason.

"Why is that?" She inquired.

"You're not a Jounin, nor are you a relative, or a witness."

"But-But I'm his teammate", she stuttered desperately. "Former teammate, she rectified when Yamato arched an eyebrow at her, but that's beside the point. I know him. I know what happened."

"This is not about what you know. This is about people who have lost homes, belongings, and more importantly cherished ones when Madara attacked. Naruto died. The hero died. The hope of the village died. People are frustrated and _angry_. They want someone to pay. And Sasuke's not the most innocent in the lot."

"No, they can't condemn him to death…It's just absurd…It just _can't_ be…"

"Sakura, Yamato called out to her with his reasoning voice."

"If they ever do that, what would have Naruto's sacrifice been for?" Sakura suddenly snapped. "It was Naruto's will…Keeping him alive was the last thing he'd done. _Don't they understand?_ He's the last thing we'll ever get from Naruto. They can't…

The rest of the sentence was muffled in the Anbu's shoulder as he took her gently in his arms. She fell silent, then desperately clung to him, trying to drown her helplessness in the smell of pain, blood and sweat emanating from him. She took deep breaths, inhaling that scent of a shinobi, the scent of duty. And that was enough to calm her.

"You don't have to fight for that, Sakura", the middle-aged man said after she shook herself off his caring hold.

The young kunoichi merely smiled.

"I will, however", she simply replied, determined.

Yamato shook his head, sighing.

"Then, I guess I have no choice but help. He _did _save me after all."

"Then this is going to make his transfer to a normal cell easier", Sakura added, grinning.

Yamato sighed.

"Already requesting help? You don't waste your time."

"I don't have any to waste. Which reminds me that it's time to assist to his transfer."

"You really are a mischievous child. How can you expect me to arrange that if it's for today?"

"I already have shishou's approval. Could you smooth things up with the Anbu, please? Ja ne…"

"Sakura."

She had already been going when he stopped her.

Silence.

"Don't forget that it's a lost battle you're fighting", Yamato warned her.

She gazed at his eyes which had certainly witnessed countless deaths and horrors, and she knew that through his mouth, years of experience were speaking. Still, she couldn't bring herself to let go of the determination she felt boiling inside her.

"If there's anything Naruto had taught me", she said with a sad smile, "it's that no battle is lost until you give it all you've got."

And with that said, she was gone.

* * *

A/N: I _so_ need your guidance. Therefore, click on the review button and let me know what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author note:** So many authors on ff affirm that they write while listening to precise kind of music, or some songs, or bands. I don't mind music while writing, but I find myself not really listening to it, unless in some rare moments when I'm facing a major problem or I'm stuck at some point. Then I listen to Red. By the way, has anyone noticed that the titles of the chapters are titles of their songs? Guess not.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, and don't intend to steal it *cough* yet*cough* (whistles innocently).

* * *

**Chapter 3:** Shadows

"Sasuke? Are you alright? "

The raven didn't hear her at first. He was too busy staring at the _wide-wide-wide_ sky from the window of the cell that was as-of-new his. Sakura had kept her word and had come to fetch him with a four-man cell of Anbu who were there to certainly keep an eye on him. Whereas Sakura was glaring daggers at them (he heard her mumble something about her being trustworthy enough and « goddam » able to do this on her own), he didn't mind them. Even when they blindfolded him (At that point, Sakura was plain _furious_ and it took a certain shinobi's calm voice, whose name was something like Yagato or whatever, to get her to reluctantly let things go as they were to) and pushed him roughly through the underground labyrinth, he still didn't mind. Completely disoriented, disheveled, he was finally brought to the open world. His lungs, which adapted to the dampness underground, hurt when they were suddenly filled with fresh air, and he choked and tumbled from _life_ taking over his insides, which earned him an impatient hit in the back by one of his guards. He even thought he felt sunrays tickling his face, but he wasn't sure about it, for he was rapidly and unceremoniously thrown against the hard, cold floor of the cell.

As he was scrambling into a sitting position, he heard Sakura shoo his escort with some colorful language he had never thought would cross her mouth. He chuckled softly, but stopped when she yanked away the piece of cloth and his eyes made brutal contact with light. He had winced. Then he had slowly reopened his eyes, ignoring the pain that the sunlight was sending through them, wanting to make sure of what he had first noticed when the blindfold had been taken away.

A window. A real window. It was small, placed rather high, and it contained bars with written seals on them, but it was a _window_. Beyond it laid the world.

Sasuke closed his eyes a little while, so as for them to get accustomed to the new environment. Sakura was still fuming in a low voice, cautiously inspecting every corner of the cell.

"Found it, you bastards!" She suddenly exclaimed, victorious.

He wasn't really listening. He wasn't even looking at her. He had simply gotten up, approached the tiny window, and peered outside. It was too high for him to see where exactly the jail was, let alone anything about the village. But he could _see_. He could see branches and greenness and the _blue-blue-this-kind-of-blue_ sky. He had been staring at the sky when he became faintly aware that Sakura's movements had come to an end and that she was silent. Then he heard her say something, What was it again?

"_Are you alright__?"_

He tore away his gaze from the source of light to face her, ready to reassure her. As soon as he laid his eyes on her, he completely forgot what he meant to say, or if he wanted to say anything at all.

He was seeing her. He was _seeing_ her. He could see every shade of pink her hair took when sucking in the sunlight just to reflect it in all those faint roseate tones that were so dull but so mesmerizing, so _mesmerizing_. And that's how it struck him that he was seeing her for the first time since the last time at Orochimaru's lair. The darkness of the other cell prevented him from seeing anything but her eyes and he had been just barely making out her features but now…He could see everything. Everything. The red top, the shining silver of the forehead protector, the pale white of the skin, the colors, the colors and life taking his eyes hostage and stopping his mind.

" Sasuke?"

Viridian eyes were looking at him quizzically, which made him come to his senses at last.

"I'm okay", he simply mumbled, looking at her hand, intrigued. She was holding something that looked like an…

"Explosive tag", she finished for him. "I found it nested between the sheets and the bed", she added, gesturing to the left corner of the cell where the bed was (A _bed_. He had a _bed_ now).

Sasuke remained silent. He didn't know what to make of the information, if anything at all. He realized that Anbu using cheap means to kill him before his actual execution (because he _would_ be sentenced to death, no matter what Sakura tried) showed just how much he was hated, even among the neutral, masked, high-ranked…

_Wait._

"The bastards", Sakura hissed. "They are underestimating me."

"I don't think so", he replied, thoughtfully.

Sakura dangerously narrowed her eyes.

"Is that so? Is my level as a kunoichi so lame that I would fall for a trap _that_ obvious?"

"That's not it", he quickly rectified. "What I meant is that they perhaps set this up on purpose."

For a moment, Sakura looked puzzled.

"I don't understand."

Sasuke paused for a second, his eyes discovering and scrutinizing each and every corner of the cell, avoiding hers.

"They are Anbu. The almighty, high-ranked Anbu, who keep data on every single shinobi inside and outside of Konoha, resorting to something as miserable as an explosive tag? And putting it somewhere that you or I would easily discover?"

He was doing something he hadn't done for long. An old Sasuke, whose existence he had denied when he let himself sink in desperate hatred, was taking over him, getting information, classifying it, analyzing it, coming up with conclusions. He realized he was thinking like a shinobi again, which made him smirk faintly. He looked at Sakura, in whose eyes comprehension was slowly dawning.

"In other words, they wanted us to discover it, right?" she said. "But why?" she added, thoughtfully biting on her lower lip, a light frown marring her features. "Were they feeling a bit humorous? No, wait, they can't be…"

"Threatening you? Pretty much." he completed, his smirk widening.

He expected her to look concerned, worried, or at least angry. He didn't expect her to calmly lean on the wall, cross her arms, close her eyes in a thoughtful silence, then sigh.

"What a bunch of idiots. Probably last remnants of the disbanded Root, who want to avenge their master and work with the two remaining old geezers."

"Sakura."

She cringed.

"I don't like that serious tone", she said, her voice casual, but eyes glimmering playfully.

"Their message is clear. They want you to back off", Sasuke stated, ignoring her last words.

"Thank you for stating the obvious." She rolled her eyes.

"Sakura."

He had spelled each letter with disapproval, and a bit of scolding. She looked at him, completely serious this time.

"What is it?"

"You should stop."

She looked bemused.

"It can be dangerous. They can get dangerous", Sasuke explained somberly.

They stared at each other's eyes for a moment in an awkward silence, until she broke it with a scoff. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Are you worried about me, Sasuke? That would be a first."

He leaned on the wall facing her, closing his eyes for a little while. Tiredness was catching up to him, creeping up on his eyelids, but he merely shook it off.

"Not quite", he mumbled so low that she nearly didn't catch it.

Sakura looked surprised for a fleet moment, but quickly erased any hint of emotion from her face. She averted her eyes from him, nervously twirling a strand of pink hair with her finger. When she talked again, it was to the window from which peered the colors of the sunset.

"If I am considered as a threat to them, then it means that we can make it, right?" she said softly.

Sasuke sighed.

"If the Anbu are involved, it can get pretty nasty. You've done enough."

"I'm not backing off."

She looked at him with fiery determination.

"I'm not doing it for you", she reminded him, which ticked him off, without him knowing the reason behind it.

"Naruto wouldn't want you to get hurt", he growled, annoyed.

"Naruto would get you out of here no matter what. I'll try whatever I can for this sole purpose. And I'm not changing my mind, _whatever you tell me_", she added when she saw him ready to retort that _it's-enough-it's-enough-it's-enough-for-me_.

He sighed, tilted his head upwards for her not to see that he had a hard time keeping his lips from curving upwards.

"You've become hard-headed", he finally said, failing at hiding the amusement in his voice.

"Must be a notorious knucklehead's influence", she admitted sadly.

Sasuke felt his throat tighten. The last sunrays, falling from the window, had a golden gleam that reminded him of _that-stupid-dobe's _hair. That wavering light seemed like an invitation to open up, and perhaps let in the tiniest bit of hope (to live, get through, stand up finally and free himself from the bloody, deadly chains of memories of hatred and darkness).

"Is it possible?" he asked suddenly.

"What is?"

"For you to succeed", he answered, looking seriously at her.

He looked at those green eyes, noticing for the first time that they no longer held that little sparkle that made them seem so innocent. He regretted that.

She seemed to take her time to answer, as if she was choosing the right words, or was she just growing tired? He didn't know.

"Sasuke, I'm not asking for your help, or for gratitude, or for your concern. As weird as it sounds, I'll ask one thing of you, and it will be to trust me."

He didn't know why, but her words made him feel better.

"Aah."

He closed his eyes, enjoying the sound of birds chirping and the soft murmur of the wind through the leaves. He decided he liked that sound.

"I have to go", Sakura announced.

He nodded, not opening his eyes.

_She's coming tomorrow._

Even though he would never admit it, he was already looking forward to it.

* * *

"Need some help?"

Recognizing her blonde best friend's cheerful voice and not taking her eyes from the file she was reading (she hated it when something interrupted her while reading important documents, because she would always lose focus and would have to re-read the whole thing.), Sakura merely pointed to the seat in front of her, making it clear that whatever Ino wanted, she would have to wait.

When she finally went through the file (which didn't take long, considering that she was Haruno Sakura and that reading a twelve-page file was nothing compared to three-hundred-page anatomy books she had to memorize overnight when undergoing her medical training), she looked up at the young Yamanaka who feigned to sulk.

"You deign talking to me, now?"Ino said while faking an indignant tone.

"This humble friend seeks atonement for ignoring your Highness when reading serious matters", Sakura replied mockingly. "Can you, in a gesture of ultimate generosity, lower yourself as much as accept my deepest apologies?"

"Let me think about it", Ino said before closing her eyes and lightly touching her lips with her finger, in what she thought was the act of "thinking". "Okay!"She quickly exclaimed, which made Sakura giggle.

"That was fast", Sakura pointed out, still laughing.

Ino's bright and mischievous grin turned into a knowing and concerned smile when she asked:

"Are you alright?"

Sakura's giggles faded away, leaving behind them a failed attempt to smile on her lips. She hated that question she had been asked numerous times, and to which she never recalled answering with whole-hearted honesty.

"I guess so."

Ino rested her elbow on the table, cupping her chin on her hand. She studied her best friend with piercing pale blue eyes, which left Sakura with the impression she was scanned with X-rays. The pink-haired girl shifted uncomfortably on her seat, wishing her friend would back off and break the silence that settled in her office at the hospital.

"What are you doing, anyway?"Ino asked casually.

Sakura felt relief wash over her as she silently thanked her friend for understanding her uneasiness and changing the subject. She still wasn't ready to talk.

"Going through old trials' archives."

"Sounds exciting."

"You have no idea", Sakura replied with a sigh. She pointed to a pile of yellowish, old looking documents. "I still have to read these, and there are still some three piles like that awaiting me at home."

"The ideal welcome after night shift at the hospital", Ino commented, which made Sakura laugh again. "Even though I'm sure it must be captivating to get yourself asthma with all the dust you'll smell while reading those files, I, on the other hand, don't know why you would be doing this."

Not answering, Sakura got up and went to the coffee machine, pulling out a mug from a drawer.

"Do you want some?"

Ino shook her head, looking closely at the mug. It was big, way bigger than normal, and was a hideous shade of yellow.

"What's _that_?"Ino asked, pointing at the ugly object.

Sakura raised it to her eye level, and then glanced worriedly at Ino.

"You don't know what a mug looks like?"

"I _know_ what a mug is, thank you very much, but just how could you call this _atrocity_ a mug?"

Sakura weakly smiled, while cradling the object with care in her hands, almost with affection.

"This is Naruto's birthday present to me."

_Shit_, Ino cursed inwardly. How tactful, really…

"Sorry…", Ino began, truly embarrassed, when Sakura burst out in an unstoppable fit of laughter.

"Sakura?"Ino wearily inquired, fearing for her best friend's sanity.

"So-Sorry, (laugh) Ino. (mad giggling) It's just (some more laughter) he didn't have…(chuckle)…he didn't have…(snort) (wipe out some tears) (snort again)…taste at all, did he?"Sakura managed to explain before exploding in laughter again, unable to stop herself.

Ino began laughing, not knowing exactly why, but Naruto's lack of taste seemed so humorous in that room where she knew Sakura had silently mourned her loss, alone in the dark. Soon after, neither of them could stop herself, and if anyone had entered the room, he would have found both of them on the floor, Sakura's hands firmly clutching her sides, for it **hurt** to laugh that much, while tears were streaming down Ino's face.

At last, the hilarity seemed to dwindle. Sakura felt melancholy take over her, and she couldn't help but smile faintly while caressing the edge of the mug with a longing finger.

"God, how I miss him."

Sakura sharply lifted her head to face her friend, unbelieving what she had just thought had escaped the blonde's mouth.

"Don't look at me like that. I really do", Ino said, sadly but with amusement. "I mean, we all do, to some extent, even though everyone's trying to hide it. But it's so _obvious_, really, for his absence shows all over the village. It's something in the air, in the very core of the village. You can't explain it, but something is missing, and that's how Chouji ends up at Ichiraku's instead of the barbecue, and Akamaru howling every night and it sounds like he's _crying_, and Shikamaru staring at the Hokage faces instead of the clouds…You don't have to hide anything, Sakura, because you're not alone into this. That obnoxious idiot has left us all."

Sakura let the words sink into her, absent-mindedly caressing the edge of the mug. It was true, she mused, that she had been so absorbed by all the pent up emotions, the anger, the denial, the hurt and the sadness that came with her best friend's loss, that she didn't notice that she wasn't the only one suffering from it. She suddenly remembered something, or _someone_, she had overlooked. How could she have been so pathetically lost in her own sorrow, when _she_ was surely dying on the inside by now…

"How's Hinata?"Sakura inquired with urgency.

"Not really okay."

She _knew_ it. How could she forget, even for a fleet second, that Hinata _loved_ him and his death must have destroyed her more than anyone else. She had been self-centered, like always, oblivious to her friend's state…

"Don't you begin blaming yourself for so-called selfishness."

"How did you…? "Sakura inquired, appalled.

"I'm psychic ", Ino answered, grinning. "Don't worry about Hinata, Neji's watching over her with _such_ care, it's stunning me. But you…You have the nasty habit of bottling it all up, refusing to let anyone in, even _me_. Don't deny it ", she added hastily when she saw Sakura's mouth open up to disagree strongly. "But it's okay. As long as you find someone who would break your wall of silence, I don't mind if it isn't me. Because you really need it, Sakura."

The pink-haired medic closed her mouth, reflecting on what her best friend's words. She was somehow upset, not knowing what the reason really was.

_No, you know why. It's because you know she's right._

"I can't, Ino."

She had spoken with a gentle, yet firm voice. Ino raised a brow questioningly.

"I can't open up just yet, because if I do, I…"

She paused, hesitant, finding it hard to swallow for she felt a lump forming on her throat.

"I will collapse, and I need myself to be strong right now", she finally continued in one breath, her throat tight and a nauseating feeling tickling her heart.

An awkward silence settled in the room. Sakura tried to listen to the hospital's sounds, the faint sighs of the sleeping patients, the scurrying of nurses across the corridors called in some room where the injured needed help, the whispers of medics talking about some worrying case. She failed, only able to listen to the loud, messy pounding of her heart in her ears. She lowered her head, hiding her face with her hair, regretting to have let those words out, even in front of someone whom she trusted so deeply.

Ino didn't comment. When she broke the silence, it was with a soft sigh.

"You intend to help Sasuke, don't you?"

Sakura merely nodded.

"And how are old archives going to help you to do it?"

"I'm searching through old trials of nukenins, trying to find cases where, with approximately the same charges, the guy got out alive."

"Did you find any?"

Sakura shook her head grimly. Ino tilted her head to the side, peering at her friend from downwards, trying to reach her eyes sheltered by her pink locks.

"Can I be of help?"

"Well, if you could take tomorrow's night shift…"

"Okay ", Ino agreed with a sigh.

"Thank you."

Sakura knew Ino wanted to do more for her than simply take her shift, but she couldn't let anyone get involved into this. The explosive tag incident was still fresh in her mind, and Sasuke's grim words (_it-can-get-nasty_) just pushed her all the more to protect her boisterous blonde friend from any collateral damage.

Ino then bid her goodbye ("Have fun with your papers, Forehead!"), her turquoise eyes lingering a second longer on Sakura's tired gaze, as if wanting to tell something, but deciding against it. After the door closed, carrying the atrociously yellow mug, now filled with cinnamon-smelling coffee, the pink-haired kunoichi returned to the fastidious task that lay ahead of her, waiting patiently for her on her desk.

She spent the next three hours flipping through the pages, taking little sips of coffee now and then, before deciding to stop: she was feeling drowsy, her mind was screaming for some rest, and frustration was starting to get the better of her patience. It was always the same story: either the charges were too different, or the nukenin never got to return to their homeland. She suspected that it had to be Danzo's work, for she knew the Sandaime had a less harsh approach. She sighed, massaging her temples. At this rate…

_No._

_There's a way. There's definitely something I can do._

But what? _What_? Here she was, searching for something that perhaps didn't even exist! What good was that? How was she going to make it?

She slammed her fist on the table, making it crack grimly. Frustration and lassitude had finally turned to anger, a bubbling, raging, burning anger. She was furious at _him_ for needing her, furious at Naruto for leaving her, furious at Ino for being there, furious at her useless pathetic self who couldn't save the one life she had to, even if it meant guarding it with her own. She looked spitefully at the pile of files.

_Stupid, useless crap._

With a fuming and violent movement of her hand, she pushed the archives off the desk and watched them collapse to the ground in a clutter of old paper, already regretting her sudden, irate and _stupid_ outburst.

_Great._

Now she had to pick up that mess, tidy it up, _then_ read it.

_Way to go, Sakura. You have just __granted yourself another endless chore._

A deep, heavy sigh escaped her lips. She crouched down and began to gather the papers exhaling the mystery-filled scent of dust-eaten years, merely landing her eyes on one for a fleet moment before passing to the other, until something peculiar caught her eyes. That file looked a little older than the others, its paper seeming fragile enough to wither between her hands if she didn't handle it with enough care. Curiosity pushed her to take a look at it.

She suddenly stood up, eyebrows now knitted closely together, her face tensed up in an expression of extreme concentration, oblivious to the mess of paper surrounding her desk.

The more she read, the faster all the anger and exhaustion seemed to disappear, eradicated by a faint feeling she couldn't name at first. It wasn't until she sat herself at her desk, reading the document, that she realized it was hope.

* * *

**Author rambling:** That's it for you, guys. Sorry for the current pace of the story, but I have to insert some essential plot elements, and I couldn't have gone farther on this one, for it would have taken me the double to write.

But I think there will be some more action in the next chapters, so look forward to it!

By the way, reviews are welcome, even if it is just to point out some spelling mistake. Constructive criticism would be appreciated beyond words.

See ya.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author note:** I should be preparing for two exams (one in Physics, the other in Engineering Science. I really like the first, and suck at the latter), and here I am, writing this story. And I like it. That's what happens when you're under a lot of pressure. Sigh.

**Disclaimer: **Come on, it's the fourth chapter already. Even Goofy would know that I don't own Naruto.

* * *

**Chapter 4:** End of Silence

"You _what_?"

Tsunade's voice was intrigued. She put both her elbows on her desk, intertwined her fingers and peered at her apprentice from under her pale blonde bangs. Sakura didn't falter under the piercing gaze of the Godaime. She looked determined and confident and completely and totally _worn out_. Tsunade's amber eyes lingered on the bags under Sakura's weary eyes and her chalky face, and, although she knew it wouldn't change a thing, she felt worried.

"I was wondering if there were any documents retracing Konoha's earliest days, and if I could consult them."

Sakura's voice sounded weird, as if she was struggling to make it come out strong and alright. Tsunade rested her nose on her interlaced hands, wondering if she should answer her pupil, or ask her to immediately go home and get some sleep. Thinking the latter would only bring up fierce and firm opposition (for Sakura could be _quite_ stubborn sometimes) and a battle of wills she would end up losing (since she understood Sakura's motives all too well), the Hokage decided to save time and chose the first option.

"There could be something, but I'll have to ask about the reason behind this sudden interest of yours. I highly doubt this is out of some odd and sudden surge of patriotism," Tsunade added, never taking her eyes from Sakura's.

The viridian eyes didn't cower under the stern amber gaze. Sakura remained silent, however. Tsunade let some seconds fly away, but each silent-filled moment consumed a little of her already limited patience. She was about to ungraciously send the pink-haired girl home, peeved by her obstinate silence, when Sakura finally spoke.

"It could...help me."

"Why, thank you for this more than enlightening answer, Sakura," Tsunade replied sarcastically, slamming both her hands on the desk, which screeched painfully while a slight crack built its way through one of its legs. Her voice had been modulated, but a threatening edge could be felt in it.

Tsunade saw Sakura flinch with smug satisfaction.

"Shishou," Sakura carefully began, "It is still vague..."

"Is it a matter of trust, Sakura?" Tsunade inquired with a higher tone than she intended, her short-temper kicking in.

"Of course not!" Sakura burst out, genuinely taken aback.

"Then what is it?"

"I-"

Sakura bit her lips.

"I don't want to trouble you with my task. You have supported me enough," Sakura said in a little voice, a tinge of pink burning her cheeks while she averted her eyes from Tsunade's and intently gazed at the floor.

The Godaime's features softened. So that was again Sakura's phobia of burdening someone with something she considered herself-and herself _only_- responsible for. Although it was what made her apprentice both adorable and reliable, it could become quite a pain when she wanted to offer her some help. Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose, hiding the affectionate smile that she was fighting off.

"Sakura, I'm your master. You can always rely on me, so don't worry about the trouble you would cause me when _I_'m the one wanting to help. Understood?"

Sakura merely nodded her head, still averting her gaze from Tsunade's. She reached for her kunai pouch, took out a neatly folded, ancient-looking piece of paper, unfolded it, and handed it to Tsunade, who read the first lines and stopped, confused.

"How on earth...," she began but was interrupted when Sakura, who had drawn closer to her while she was reading without her noticing it, silently pointed to a certain line she hadn't reached, perplexed by the very beginning of the document.

While she read, Tsunade's expression went from puzzlement to astonishment. She then raised her head and took a deep look at her pupil.

"Well, that's unexpected."

"What is it, shishou? And how come I never heard of it?" Sakura asked, frowning.

"You and your peers couldn't have heard of this, for it has stopped long before you were born, when I was your age as a matter of fact," Tsunade added, watching Sakura's dumbfounded reaction with glimmering, amused eyes. "I bet even your parents wouldn't know of it, since I myself know very little about this matter. It was rather peculiar, and I think it was to reinforce Konoha's unity."

Tsunade stopped for a moment, looking absent-mindedly at the paper, trying to recall lost memories of her youth. But then something occurred to her.

"Why would you need to know about this?" she asked, eyeing Sakura suspiciously.

Sakura's face was impassive, but she was surreptitiously fidgeting at her kunai pouch, which Tsunade took as worrying. Usually, Sakura fidgeting meant indecision, stubbornness, and, mainly, trouble.

"Sakura, even though I understand your motives very well, I advice you not to go down that road if you're not fully aware of what it would take from you," the Hokage said in a soft tone.

"It's the only thing I have got, right now," Sakura replied, and Tsunade couldn't distinguish whether her tone had been laced with helplessness or exhaustion.

"Are you willing to do it all, even if nothing comes out of it in the end?" Tsunade couldn't help but insist.

Sakura's nervous fidgeting stopped. Her gaze went from her master's eyes to the window behind her, and Tsunade knew exactly where her viridian eyes were looking. It made the elderly woman's heart pound painfully.

_The Rokudaime's carved face...Naruto's. _

"Yes, I am."

Tsunade peered at Sakura, and couldn't help but feel distressed. Why hadn't she been able to protect this generation from being scarred by war? Why couldn't she make things alright even now?

"I guess you'll have to search for yourself in the Hokage's private library to find what you want; for I'm afraid I can't really help you on the matter."

Sakura seemed astounded at first, and for a good reason: no one but Shizune and the Godaime entered that room. It was said to contain advanced medical books, top secret data on the Anbu, reports of interrogations, copies of treaties and others precious documents. Then, slowly, her whole face seemed to beam. It had nothing to do with her normal outstanding smile, Tsunade thought, but it was better than the fake one she had been putting on after Naruto's death, which made the Hokage feel a little better.

Sakura then hastily thanked her, bowed, and scurried off the office, eyes glimmering with determination. Tsunade got up and looked out her window, gazing pensively at the village, the carved stone faces of gone warriors (_he-was-so-young-so-young-so-young-and-then-he-died_), the impassive blue sky and the endless forest of the Fire Country. Not protecting this generation from war pains and losses, had she failed as Hokage? She had asked Shizune that question when, in the first hours following the end of it all, Naruto's death caged her heart in sorrow and doubt, as memories of the younger brother she couldn't save intertwined with the whiskered face which was forever engulfed in the most peaceful slumber.

"_You haven't failed anyone, Tsunade-sama. You can't protect this generation from death, for they are shinobi, and they have to wear their scars, like we wear ours._"

Reflecting on it now, Tsunade concluded her niece had definitely been right.

* * *

"Sakura?"

"Hmm?"

She carried on her task, which consisted of healing his shallower wounds, not giving out any sign that she was ready to listen to him. For a second, one mere, miserable second, Sasuke almost hoped that she wouldn't care and would brush off his attempt to talk casually, for he thought that perhaps the subject he was itching to bring about would drastically shatter the brittle peace that had settled in his cell in that lazy early afternoon.

"What is it?"

A _mere_, _miserable_ second.

He carefully studied her pallid face, and finally decided against saying anything.

"Hn," he simply groaned.

Too late.

Sakura's fist collided with his jaw with such violence and rapidity that it left him dazed for a second. He heard Sakura's seethed words through the painful throbbing of the left side of his face.

"Don't give me a reason to hit you when I'm dying to _strangle_ you without any. And I'm not healing _that_," she added, pointing at his swollen (_throbbing-throbbing-throbbing_) cheek.

Sasuke stoically gazed at her while she glared at him, mustering the courage to face whatever his question was about to cause with a composed face, completely ignoring the pain coursing through his face.

_When have you learned to hit that hard?_

He faintly, dully wondered if she was really Sakura. Or had she ever been at a certain time the carefree, cheerful thirteen-year-old who brought the team together? Her emerald eyes bore nothing but loath when looking at him, disdain at best.

It wasn't until he heard her knuckles crack grimly that Sasuke realized he had repeated the same mistake that earned him a hurting jaw. He had been too absorbed in his brooding to answer her properly (or answer her at all), thus causing her temper to flare.

She had dangerously gripped the collar of his shirt when he spoke in an expressionless, dull voice.

"How was his funeral?"

There. He hadn't been able to stop himself. He had said it.

Sakura's eyes widened alarmingly but he couldn't see the expression of her face, for she quickly lowered her head, hiding her features behind her pink, silky locks. Her clutch on him loosened for a fleet moment before becoming even tighter than before.

She violently pushed him against the wall, and then took a few steps back, turning her back on him. Was she looking at the window? Was she simply ignoring him? Would she answer him?

_Will you?_

"Why would you care to know? What good is it now that he's gone? Why would _I_ care to tell you?" she whispered bitterly after a while.

"You attended the funeral," he simply replied, his voice as blank as his face, as though that mere fact answered all her questions.

"Of course I did_!_" she shouted, turning to him at last, eyes glimmering-_is-it-anger-or-are-these-tears?_ her face contorted with something...

_Something... _

Something he couldn't name.

"I didn't have the chance to say goodbye, I didn't get to see him before he...I didn't get to save him, I wasn't _frigging_ there! So I attended his funeral. You want to know how it was, Sasuke?" she added with a dangerously low voice that resembled the faint rustling of the wind through the leaves before the storm, drawing closer to him, fists curled tightly into balls. "It was fucking sunny. You'd expect rain, heavy, relieving rain to fall hard on your face to hide...everything on a funeral. But no. It was sunny and the sky was sickeningly blue and clear and beautiful when it should had been all torn apart and tempestuous and dark. Because everyone was _dead_ and hurt and crying, and we wanted him, and Kakashi, and Asuma, and everyone back so badly. And yet, the heavens were mocking us by that pale copy of a perfect day, a perfect weather."

Her hands then convulsively took hold of his collar, clutching firmly, hard, as if to try not to break him. Sasuke tried to keep a completely inexpressive facade, but it was hard. Her words, ushered and violent and cut and spat, were making him feel weird.

_Angry and lost at the same time. _

He didn't know why exactly he would be angry, but the ire was there, slowly _building up-swelling-throbbing-like-where-she-punched._ It wasn't until he met her dead eyes, noticing her ragged breaths, the aura of hatred and hurt emanating from her, that he realized he was furious and disgusted with _himself_.

_It's my fault._

He had killed Itachi.

He had been unable to stop Naruto.

He had broken her. Twice.

It was _his-fault-his-fault-his-fault_.

A familiar, nauseating, faint stench reached his nose, tore his mind away from his dark thoughts, alarming him.

_Blood._

_Blood-blood-blood-__**blood.**_

He saw a trail of the dark red liquid running from her right hand, clashing against her pale skin. She had dug her nails so hard in her palm when she balled it into a fist, that she had hurt herself. It was him who drove her to it. It was his fault. Again.

_Shit. Shit-shit-shit-_**shit.**

Sasuke silently, hesitantly took hold of her right wrist. He felt her start, and her whole body tensed, but she didn't shake him off. He didn't look at her face; he didn't want to see his own puzzlement in her eyes. He had just intended to point out the blood dripping from her arm, but he found out he was unable to speak coherently at the moment. Her hand was soft and warm, which made him feel completely lost and...weird. He was rediscovering what it meant to touch someone else, especially when this someone was Sakura.

"Your hand...It's bleeding," he said in a hoarse voice, finally glancing at her, never letting go of said hand.

Her face was impassive, but her lips were slightly trembling, and there was something wistful in the way she looked at him.

"What happened there, Sasuke?" she whispered in a strained voice.

He should have expected it. After all, he wasn't the only one with an uneasy question to ask.

He gazed at her dull eyes, at her hand. He distractively noted that she had released her grasp over his collar. Her left hand was now clutching his shoulder very hard. He reflected on what he had done, what he had destroyed, what he had lost.

_I'm sorry._

He mutely released her wrist.

Memories flowed through him, memories of halcyon days with a younger, brighter, beaming Sakura, with glimmering, shining, brilliant apple green eyes and caring hands that longed for him and had hugged him in his moments of dark despair, during the Chuunin exams.

He had killed her. He had killed the Sakura he knew and came to like and consider as friend. It was irreversible, irremediable. And it was making a part of him, long gone numb, twitch and awaken uncomfortably, like a limb enduring pins and needles.

_I'm so sorry._

He felt his face harden. With dead eyes and faint voice, he answered. "I killed him."

He saw her eyes widen. Then she took her hand away from his shoulder, staring disbelievingly at him. She shook her head.

"You're not answering me."

"I killed him."

"I want to know what happened. What happened, Sasuke?" She took him by the shoulders, and started shaking him back and forth. His face remained expressionless, closed, mute. "What happened? What happened? What happened, _dammit_?" His silence was getting to her, frustrating her.

Sasuke merely turned his face sideways, refusing to contemplate her desperate eyes any longer. There was a moment where all was silent and dreadful. Then he felt a sharp, excruciating pain electrify his left cheek. She had hit him in the already-swollen side of his face. He tasted blood, didn't have the time to spit it, for she was already punching the other side, then again, and again, and again...

His face had gone numb before she finally finished venting all the pent up emotions on him. Through blurry eyes, he saw her run out the cell, angry, hurt, broken. Before the door of the cell had slammed, he had distinctly heard a sob.

After a moment spent to recollect himself, Sasuke finally spit the rest of blood invading his mouth that he didn't swallow. His vision was blurry, hindered by heavy, swollen eyelids, but he couldn't care less.

_She's still there. Right behind that door._

He didn't know how he knew it, but it _felt_ like she was still there, leaning on the door, _crying_.

He carefully got up, hand on the wall to support him while he was wobbling his way to the big, secure, lead door (to _her-her-her_ ). When he finally arrived to it, he didn't know what he wanted to do anymore, or if he even knew it from the beginning. Carefully, cautiously, he rested his hands on the cold metal, then his forehead, which made him wince in pain.

His trained ninja ears heard her muffled sobs, and he just stood there, aware only of her presence so close yet so far, the lead door seeming so thin but so _material_, separating her from him by both inches and eternities, and his own uselessness and inability to voice all the things that mattered, that part of him wanted her to know, while the other wanted to take it to the grave with him.

He suddenly heard shuffle on her side, thus he backed away, just in time for her to open the door. Vision still hazy, he couldn't really figure out her expression, but he could _see_ her. His eyes locked up with hers, and they stayed like this for _seconds-moments-eternity_, both standing awkwardly, painfully apart and together at the same time.

Then she firmly took his hand (her hand was _warm-soft-__**hers**_), lead him to the mattress, and briskly sat him. A pregnant pause lingered between them while he stubbornly refused to raise his head to meet her eyes again. His heart skipped a beat when he felt her hands on each side of his face. She then hesitantly raised his face. Other than her reddened eyes, there was no sign she had just been crying.

"I'm not apologizing for this," she blurted out at last, looking intently at him.

"I wasn't expecting you to," he replied.

Viridian. That was all he could make out right now. Their eye-contact was unsettlingly calming him.

Sasuke felt her chakra (_gentle-soft-soothing_) begin to run through his face, mending, healing.

Long silence.

He closed his eyes.

"I couldn't kill him. That's what happened."

Sakura was so surprised that she stopped channelling chakra through his face. He feigned not to notice anything. He didn't know why, but he felt he had to tell her.

"In the end, I couldn't kill Naruto. And that's when Madara went mad. He began screaming that I had to fulfil my destiny, that I had to avenge the Uchiha clan, that I had to help him with his creepy Moon-Eye plan. Naruto and I then attacked him."

He stopped, not used to long speeches. Sakura had carried on her silent task of healing his face, but her chakra had become unruly, wavering.

"However, we just went through him. We were trying to come up with some strategy, we were oblivious to his dark muttering, we didn't notice that he had completely lost whatever piece of mind he had left within him. It's not until he roared that Konoha was rotten and that he was definitely making sure that it was annihilated that we understood how dangerous he was. It was too late, though. Madara started sucking the cliff into his dimension, and we were left desperate, lost, and confused. What were we to do?"

He paused again, this time because of the lump he felt in his throat. He clenched his jaw, drenched in the agonizing flow of memories. When he talked again, it was with a hoarse voice.

"At that moment, Naruto _spaced _out. It seemed as though he was completely absent. The whole cliff was breaking down, and I...I yelled at him that it was no time to doze off. And yet, he didn't come to his senses. That's when I understood..."

"He was talking to the Kyuubi," Sakura completed as his words trailed off, her voice hoarser than his.

He dared open his eyes. Too caught up in the story-telling, he hadn't realized that, meanwhile, Sakura had finished her task and had taken off her hands from his face. His vision was clear again, now that his eyelids were back to their normal size.

The young kunoichi was avoiding his gaze, arms tightly crossed over her chest.

"Yeah..."

Outside, the sun was setting, painting the sky with bright shades of orange and some hues of soft pink. He didn't know why, but that day ending was whispering to him elegies of dread. He shook his head, trying to brush off this persistent impression, focusing again on Sakura.

"Turned out that the Kyuubi held a grudge towards Madara for making him attack the village and consequently be sealed. It wanted Madara's death as much as us. The demon could kill Madara, but..."

He remembered seeing Naruto's eyes turning blood red, then cerulean again. He remembered him conjuring up a clone, and then looking at him with regret and apology.

"To kill Madara, the Kyuubi had to be absorbed by him in that extra dimension inside of him. It figured that its incredible amount of malevolent chakra would make it collapse, thus causing Madara to implode. In other words..."

"The Kyuubi had to be freed," Sakura continued, with a dull, strained voice.

She leaned on the wall, hiding her face behind her trembling hands.

"No. No way. He _didn't_," she finally said, looking at him with eyes glimmering with held back tears.

"He did. He saved us. I tried to stop him, but one of his clones prevented me from reaching him, while the other knocked me off from behind. After carrying me to somewhere safe, he released the Kyuubi. He killed himself. I couldn't stop him."

Giving in to a sudden urge to get closer to her, he got up from the bed and drew nearer to her, hesitant and hopeless.

"I couldn't stop him," he repeated, voice hoarser than ever. "I couldn't stop him; I killed him."

He fell silent, standing awkwardly near her, looking at her teary, tired eyes, wondering about what to say, repressing the words, the truths burning his tongue, feeling as helpless as that day.

He couldn't figure out what kind of look she was casting him, but it made his insides churn.

"You killed him," she echoed, voice feeble and distant. She squeezed her eyes shut, as though to prevent tears from falling. "Then, I killed him too," she added in a barely audible whisper.

She then hastily left his cell. Dusk came and found him still standing there, watching the door, stiff and aching.

* * *

Sakura was running. _Aimlessly-mindlessly-messily_. Tears were streaming down her face, blurring her vision, but she didn't care. Hell, she couldn't even think. She was just rushing forward, jumping from a roof to another, stumbling, regaining balance, then running again, _fast-fast-faster_.

"_I couldn't stop him. I killed him." _

_Shit. Shit-shit-_**shit**.

She could still hear him. She needed to get faster, to the point where the wind would finally blow away his _brittle-breaking-broken_ words. She ran, ran, ran...

Suddenly, a strong arm gripped her from the waist while a hand muffled her surprised yelp. Her attacker jumped them to the alley below, which was dark, deserted. When she realized that, Sakura tried to free herself by putting up a furious struggle, attempting to land hits charged with all her accumulated frustration and pain, until she heard an exasperated whisper.

"Sakura, it's me," came Yamato's tired, hushed voice.

She instantly stopped moving recklessly, leading the Anbu to release his grasp on her.

"I have urgent news to you, you absolutely...Are you alright?" he inquired, alarmed at the sight of her reddened, dull, empty eyes and ashen face when she turned to face him.

She shuddered, fiercely shook her head, hastily wiped the remains of a tear on her cheek.

"Are you sure there isn't anything wrong?" Yamato insisted, reaching for her arm.

She angrily slapped his hand away. Part of her knew it was just her former taichou's natural kindness and caring for her showing, but it was overwhelmed by the other disoriented, irate part which didn't want his pity.

"I'm alright," she replied a little more forcefully than she intended.

There was a pregnant pause, during which Sakura avoided his penetrating gaze.

_Get a grip_, she inwardly reprimanded herself. _Focus._

It wasn't until that moment that she realized that whatever Yamato had to tell, he had carried her to an isolated place before doing so.

_Away from anyone's ears. _

The secrecy, the discretion meant urgency, bad news, and, mainly, trouble.

"What is it you want to tell me?" she asked, alarmed.

"It's for tonight," he grimly answered.

Sakura's brain seemed to come to a halt.

"_What?_"

"The trial. It's for tonight."

"How do you know?" Sakura was only able to ask that stupid question, for it seemed her mind had lost the capacity to link facts coherently, let alone come up with something smart.

"Fellow Anbu. Trustworthy," he curtly responded.

Before he could add anything further, Sakura started pacing back and forth, mumbling her confused thoughts, oblivious to his presence.

"Shit, I have to do something now... No, I can't, they surely will prevent me from seeing him before the trial, so I'll have to find away to attend it..."

"Sakura..."

"Simply barge in? Out of the question, there will surely be more than a mere Chuunin guarding the doors..."

"Sakura," Yamato repeated, more intently.

"What about henge no jutsu? What am I saying, I can't fool them..."

"_Sakura_."

He had taken her by her shoulders, forcing her to face him.

"That's not all."

Yamato was casting her a look she _utterly-completely-definitely_ didn't like. Anguish made her insides shrink and was building her way up to her heart, her mind.

_No. Focus._

"They're sending you on a mission. Tonight."

Sakura let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. That was all there is to it? She arched a brow, gazing quizzically at the brown-haired man.

"That's it? It's not a problem, I can always turn down the offer..."

"No, you can't," replied the Anbu, shaking his head. "This client is supposedly an important man, one of the feudal lord's aids, thus he is to be provided with the best protection. And he expressed the wish to have _you_ be his escort."

"That's nonsensical," Sakura retorted, bemused. "I'm not the best ninja out there...Oh."

She looked at him, comprehension dawning in her eyes.

"He's with them."

Yamato nodded.

"Hokage-sama can't appoint someone else for the job, for it would put her in a delicate situation. And you can't turn down the job offer, because your seniors and Tsunade-sama herself wouldn't let you."

Anguish interlaced with anger and she smashed her fist against the nearest wall.

_What can I do? _

She was feeling so little, so impotent. She hadn't felt this powerless since she hadn't been able to stop Sasuke from leaving...She groaned.

_Him again. _

"And, of course, the departure is conveniently arranged for tonight, so that even if I can help him, I wouldn't be able to. _Shit_," she groaned as she punched the wall again. "And they're going to send someone to make sure that it's _me_, not some bunshin, or someone else disguised as me, who's going to meet up with the client..."

Her voice trailed off, as she realized how caught up she was in the counsellors' plan.

"I'm already being watched, aren't I?" she asked in a low voice, looking at Yamato with widened eyes. "That's why you brought me here. You already knew, which means, they appointed an Anbu to do it. That's it, isn't it?"

Yamato stayed silent, and she saw some of her own helplessness reflected in his dark, worn out eyes.

"It's a Yamanaka who used to work under Danzo. He's a detection type," he finally informed her.

"Then it's no use to hide ourselves, since he can sense your chakra."

"No, he can't. Shizune handed me a special substance which can hide my chakra for half an hour. I don't have much time left, and neither do you. Right now, Fuu must be thinking that you're shaken by something Sasuke did, but he must be on his way to tell you that the Godaime is soliciting you. Do you have a plan?"

Sakura was taken aback by his question. Did he honestly still think she could come up with something to counter the counsellors?

"I'm trapped, taichou," was all her strained voice could let out.

* * *

Sasuke was laying on his back, slowly drifting to a restless sleep. Caught up in the uncertain, ethereal lands separating the awake from those lost in slumber, he shifted to the left side, only to be awoken by the throbbing of his left cheek. Half-dazed, he hastily scrambled to a sitting position. He cautiously touched that side of his face, only for his fingertips to be welcome by a dull pain.

_What the hell?_

He recalled being hit there by a rampaging Sakura, but she healed him, didn't she?

"_And I'm not healing _that_," she added, pointing at his swollen cheek._

Aah. So that was it. She hadn't gone back on her words. She had healed everything except that.

Sasuke scoffed. She had surely changed a lot. He was wondering how many aspects of her were still unknown to him when the door grimly creaked open.

Two sombre-looking men (_Chuunin_, he guessed) entered the cell. As one of them brutally handcuffed him, the other one announced with a dull voice:

"You are to come with us immediately. Your trial is about to begin. Do you have any relative, or witness you'd like to see there?"

Sasuke merely glared at the man, Sharingan activated, trying to muster his most irate glower.

_You know damn well that I don't have relatives anymore, dumbass. _

The man recoiled under Sasuke's fierce look. The raven-haired smirked, before leading the way out of his cell.

_I'm the last Uchiha, foolish council dogs. Behold how a __**real**__ ninja meets his end._

* * *

Fuu was observing her from a safe distance. She was making her way to the village gates, where the client was patiently waiting for her. The Anbu didn't understand why the counsellors were making such a hassle about that girl. Yes, she was strong. After all, she was the Godaime's apprentice. However, in the end, she was still a kid. And what could she do about the situation? That Uchiha was fated to die before dawn, and it wasn't an eighteen-year-old pink-haired medic who would change that.

Fuu focused to sense her chakra. It was her signature, no doubt about it. A sudden surge of chakra alerted him. It was coming from behind him. Hearing a faint rustle in the leaves, Fuu reached for a few shuriken in his kunai pouch and turned around, ready to fight...

* * *

The room where the council and the Jounins gathered was dim-lit by torches hung on the wall. It was circular, with rows of seats where his judges were seating themselves, while he was sitting in the centre of the room, on a very uncomfortable metal chair, to which he was tied.

Sasuke could feel the uncertain silhouettes towering over him, could smell their palpable loath and despising glowers on his skin. He didn't care about the Jounins, though. It was as if he had become detached from his own self, as if he witnessed somebody else experiencing his state and feelings. Only one thought was coursing through his veins and numbing his mind.

_It ends tonight._

Right in front him were a wrinkled, shrank, old couple who were secretively whispering to each other while the others sent them looks of deference and deep respect. Sasuke felt his insides boil.

_The counsellors. Danzo's acolytes in the genocide._

He felt the Sharingan's tomoes spin furiously without recalling even activating it. He considered deactivating it, then decided against it.

After all, this secret, sect-like gathering was made to impress him, right? Why not impress _them_ a little? He wanted to remind the counsellors who they were dealing with, he wanted to revive whatever guilt they could have felt when they forced his brother to take down his own clan and drown in madness. He looked at them with all the anger and the ire his blood-red eyes could muster.

A man, white-bearded and grey-haired, stood up, thus causing the room to go completely silent. He began talking in a deep voice.

"We shall now begin the trial of Uchiha Sasuke, accused of high treason, as well as cooperation with the enemy, murder..."

* * *

Fuu shook his head, bemused. No one was there. He returned to his surveillance task.

All clean.

Haruno Sakura was leaving with the feudal lord's aid.

* * *

"Those who find the defendant guilty and vote for death penalty, please, raise your hands," said the white-bearded man.

The counsellors' hands were the first to show. Then, a hand after the other, the Jounins voted his death.

Sasuke smirked.

_Sorry, Sakura. Seems like it can't be helped._

He remembered Sakura's fierce determination when she declared she was going to save him, and, for the first time during that trial, his heart skipped a beat. For the first time, he really felt sorry for dying at that moment, because...

_I really would have liked to know you. To learn to know you. All over again._

Sasuke shook his head, trying to shake off that surge of desire to live. No, he was going to die; he was already at peace with the fact. And yet, and yet...And yet, he couldn't help but feel the stupid need to see her (_his-best-friend-his-last-friend_).

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are to be executed before dawn. Do you have any last request you would like us to fulfil?" inquired one of the counsellors, the woman.

It took some time for Sasuke to register the question. Another while to process his answer, before finally saying:

"Haruno Sakura."

"What is it about her?"

"I want my executioner to be Haruno Sakura."

A pregnant pause filled the cold air with tension.

"We will consider your inquiry," was all the male counsellor said, before gesturing to his grim-looking chaperones to take him.

* * *

He was back in his cell, lying on his back again. Moonlight washed over him like a million silver threads, whispering the mystic elegies night chanted while longing for dawn.

"_We will consider your inquiry."_

_Fucking bastard._

It was his sole request, his only wish. He didn't want some blank-looking Jounin to put him to death disdainfully. He wanted _her_. He wanted it to be _her-her-her_.

The more slowly the hours passed, the more painful the fact of being alive resounded in his body.

_I'm-going-to-die- I'm-going-to-die-I'm-going-to-die._

Soon he was engulfed in apathy, completely oblivious to anything that wasn't his heart pounding softly at his ears and time flowing by mercilessly. It consequently took a moment for his brain to register the dreadful creak the door made when it opened. As soon as he comprehended what was happening, he bolted to a standing position, one question dancing in his mind.

_Who?_

* * *

"Snap out of it already! _Kai!_"

Fuu blinked a few times, completely at a loss. Seeing a very displeased client in front of him only added further to his confusion.

"What are you doing here? What happened?" the Anbu asked, disoriented.

"That's my line, don't you think? You were to ensure that Haruno Sakura was my escort," the man retorted, clearly annoyed.

"She _was_," replied the Yamanaka, his incomprehension and the pushiness of his interlocutor beginning to get on his nerves. "What _the_ _hell_ happened?"

"You were under a bloody genjutsu, that's what happened!" the other snapped at him.

"That can't be, I was..."

"It was a clone; it wasn't the real Haruno Sakura. It just popped moments ago, and you haven't noticed anything. Moreover, it seemed like you were completely caught in that little pink-haired freak's illusion, to the extent you don't even remember falling in it!" By that time, the man was roaring, spluttering on the Anbu. "Wait until I report this to the council..."

"Report? You're one of us?"

"Did you honestly believe for a second that a man working under the feudal lord would break a genjutsu?" the man answered back, looking down on him.

A sudden pain irradiated Fuu's head, as he began remembering what exactly had happened.

_Hearing a faint rustle in the leaves, Fuu reached for a few shuriken in his kunai pouch and turned around, ready to fight. Whoever it was, they were hiding in the tree nearby. He sent two shuriken to where he suspected the assailant was hiding and waited for any movement that would indicate their definite location. The chakra signature was still there, but it didn't move, or waver, as he heard the shuriken hit the trunk. Not letting his guard down, Fuu was carefully approaching the tree, when branches suddenly shot forth and encircled his arms, waist and legs, encaging him._

Shit, you're going to pay for this one, Yamato_, he thought, trying to reach a kunai so as to cut through the wood._

"_I don't think so," said a voice nearby._

_Last thing he saw was green eyes. Then it all went dark._

The supposed feudal lord's aid was shouting things at him, fuming, but he couldn't hear the words, deafened by his headache. The only thing Fuu could do was repeating half-consciously:

"They got me...They fucking got me..."

* * *

It was her. It was _her-her-her_.

She was standing at the door, exchanging rapid, hushed words with that Anbu (Yamago? Yagato?). At a certain moment, Sasuke heard something like: "...you don't have much time, so hurry the hell up, Sakura."

"Sakura," he called to her, wanting to make sure it was really her.

She turned to him, and when her eyes met up with his, he _knew_ it was her. He felt a jolt of a strong emotion he couldn't name bring his insides back to life. He was relieved to see her, even when she looked so tense, so worn out. He felt the need to say so many things, but nothing was crossing his lips, and he was afraid, so afraid to go without telling her...

In three light steps, she was besides him, taking off her gloves.

"Take off your shirt," she firmly said.

He quizzically looked at her, suddenly at a loss, almost forgetting what she was here for.

_She's going to kill me._

His lack of response seemed to distress her.

"Sasuke, please, we don't have time...," Sakura pleaded.

"I trust you," he interrupted her, his obsidian eyes gazing intently at hers, trying to convey much more meaning than these feeble words.

For the first time since the lost days of their childhood, he saw her smile. It wasn't her usual, radiant smile, but it made him feel complete, ready to depart.

"Let's do this," she said as she began unzipping his shirt.

He kindly stopped her. He could still take off his shirt on his own, couldn't he? As he did so, he saw her bite her thumb and make some seals with her hands, not having a clue what she was doing.

With her bloodied thumb, she then traced a symbol on his bare chest, right where his heart was. Her blood was warm, quickly coagulating in the cold night air, glistening in the silver moonlight. Sasuke took a closer look at the symbol. It was tiny, and it read "Bind".

Sasuke was frankly confused, but most of all, he realized he was afraid. He was afraid of what lied ahead, he was afraid of dying, he was afraid of disappearing. At that moment, Sakura did something that took him completely off guard: she took his hand and interlaced his fingers with her own.

"Sorry, this is going to hurt," she whispered, before bending her head and kissing him on the symbol, right where his heart lay.

He didn't have time to feel shocked (she had kissed him. _She had kissed him, over his heart._), for almost immediately after she did, an excruciating pain irradiated him, channelled through his veins. His heartbeat became erratic, he felt his lungs shrink, his breaths were sharp, shallow, hurting, his head was pounding, but, through it all, he could still feel Sakura's warm fingers intertwined with his.

_Is dying...so painful? _

In spite of the blurriness of his mind, he could still hear someone roar in pain in a far away distance. Then he realized that it was _him_ shouting his burning insides out.

His broken voice seemed to fill the entire cell. And then...

There was the silence.

* * *

**Some more author rambling:** Yay, finished!!! Phew, this one took its toll on me, for it was long, _very_ long (Frankly, I'm not doing that again, because it is **really** tiring...(Kidding, of course)).

And it is the first cliff-hanger in this story, right? (*sadistic laughter*).

Hope the quick change of POV wasn't too confusing when there was action going on.

As always, your reviews are very welcome. See you folks later, when I get some sleep...


	5. Chapter 5

**Author note:** So very sorry about the time it took, but I was kinda busy with what we mortals call _life_, which is a bitch, by the way. Thank you so very much for your reviews, guys, it got me really delighted and itching for my laptop, but I literally couldn't (and don't forget to review this chapter also, pretty please ^ ^).

Now on with the story (Did I hear someone say _finally_?).

**Disclaimer:** As someone here has written (forgot the author name, sorry): Naruto is Kishimoto's property and I'm sorry Sakura is.

* * *

**Chapter 5:** Forever

Blurry. All was _blurry-blurry-blurry_. Vision, sounds were unclear, unstable. He felt wobbly, inconsistent, nauseous. It was as if his mind was engulfed in a cotton-like mist, so that everything coming to his senses was vague, distant, hazy.

Sasuke winced.

His heart, as well as the skin covering it, was painfully throbbing.

_Pain? Do I still feel pain? _

Sasuke widely opened his eyes, trying to shake off the blurriness. It still took a few moments for his eyes to refocus, but it took only seconds for the truth to register in his dazed mind.

_I'm alive._

His breaths were shallow, cold sweat covered his body, his throat was soar and aching, and that was what made him duly alive. He felt cold, even frozen, everywhere except his hand. Then his vision suddenly cleared and he was face to face with an anxious-looking Sakura, her green eyes nervously scrutinizing his.

Her (_warm-soft-gentle_) hand was still holding his sweaty palm.

"Sakura? I'm...not dead?" he stupidly asked, his voice low and hurt.

Sakura's hand squeezed his as she heaved a sigh of deep relief, before smirking at him. There was moisture in her eyes, probably from the wintry draught smuggling its way from the window.

"Of course not, you stubborn idiot. I already told you that I wouldn't let it happen, didn't I?"

Her hand left his, and he instantly missed the warmth, for the sweat made him sticky and sensitive to the chilliness of the night. He was feeling..._weird_.

Sakura watched his fingers cautiously brush his chest, nervousness back in her eyes.

Sasuke was startled. No wonder the pain had been so agonizing. It seemed that the seal that Sakura had drawn with her blood over his heart had carved itself deep in his skin. Every tiny letter was engraved and throbbing, and a warm liquid was slowly trickling from them.

_Blood._

Had his blood and hers mixed, intertwined like their fingers had been? Was some of hers running in his veins now? _What happened?_

Sasuke stared at her, his face expressionless, but his eyes questioning. He then noticed the sweat covering her forehead, her weary eyes, the fatigue that seemed to engulf her whole body. Before he could register what was happening, her eyes grew blurry, shut closed, her entire body slackened and she fell forward, as if unconscious.

She fell over him, her hair brushing his shoulder, her slender body leaning against his torso.

Sasuke tensed up, at a loss. Something then began stirring at his seal. His heart began to pound messily, and, for a split second, he felt it. He felt something else beating in his chest, something that resembled another heart, beating alongside his. The sensation disappeared as soon as Sakura hurriedly scrambled right back into a sitting position, her hand holding onto her forehead and hiding her eyes.

"Sorry," she mumbled, sounding embarrassed. "That seal drained me to a much further extent than expected."

"Hn," he answered, unsure of what he meant by that grunt, still unsettled by that itching he was feeling in his chest.

Sakura leaned on the wall, taking deep breaths for a few minutes before asking:

"Does it still hurt?"

Her eyes were focused on the door facing her. Why did her question sound like an apology?

"No."

A pregnant pause lingered between them.

"What exactly..." he began, but his voice soon trailed off as the door opened, and the head of the brown-haired Anbu popped behind it.

The man quickly acknowledged his presence with a brief nod, before turning his attention to the young girl.

"They're coming," he curtly announced with a grim tone.

Sakura solemnly nodded.

"This is as far as I go," he added as if he deeply regretted that fact.

"Thank you, Yamato-taichou," the pink-haired girl simply said, genuinely grateful.

The man (_Yamato_, Sasuke repeated in his head to memorize the name) disappeared, leaving behind an atmosphere of intense nervousness that was starting to get to Sasuke's tired nerves.

"Sasuke, you know whom he was referring to."

It wasn't a question; she was stating a fact, for he obviously would have guessed by now. He nodded, nonetheless, to make it clear he had. He was completely conscious and aware, all the fuzziness left aside while scurrying footsteps echoed sinisterly down the hall, drawing nearer to the cell.

"I'll ask one thing from you," Sakura announced with a steady voice.

Sasuke merely arched a brow questioningly.

"Do what you do best: Shut up and look smart."

Sasuke's face stayed blank for a while, before an amused smirk tugged his lips onwards.

"So I _do_ look smart, don't I?"

"And that's the closest you actually get to intelligence," she replied casually, before licking her lips in nervousness, eyes focused intently on the door. "And for Kami's sake, _put that shirt back on_."

As the footsteps came to a halt in front of the cell, Sasuke decided to ignore her snide remark and hastily inserted his arms in the sleeves of his shirt. He could already hear angry words directed probably at the guards, and for the first time since Sakura got inside, he actually wondered _how_ she managed it.

_No time for wondering. Shut up and look smart, remember? _

Sasuke erased all traces of expression from his face, which became as impassive as ever. He noticed that Sakura's hands were tightly curled into fists, her whole body tense in apprehension, but couldn't get himself to worry. He was feeling strangely calm.

_Whatever may come, I'm alive and ready._

_

* * *

_

Someone was fumbling with the keys outside, making an unnerving clicking noise. The door finally opened, revealing indistinct silhouettes and, stepping forward and looking even older in the pale moonlight, were the two sombre-faced counsellors.

"What exactly do you think you're doing here, at a time like this, Haruno Sakura?" the male counsellor, Homura, asked with a dreadfully calm voice.

Sakura licked her lips, her mind racing. What to do, what to say? She had planned everything as far as sealing Sasuke, but now...

_Guess I'll have to improvise a little._

"My duty," she answered, trying to remember the conversation she had with Yamato before he changed his finger to key-shaped wood so as to open the cell door.

"_Whatever happens, keep your voice levelled. Don't talk recklessly, or make groundless accusations. In short, don't give them anything they could use against you. Don't forget that they are Konoha's counsellors, while you are merely a Chuunin, even if your actual level is perhaps a little beyond Jounin. And, for Kami's sake, control that fierce temper of yours," had been Yamato's lecture._

"_What about healthy impertinence?" she couldn't help but ask._

_Yamato sighed before opening the door._

"_Follow your instinct, it can actually help you better than any plan," he said before adding urgently, ushering her in, " and you don't have much time, so hurry the hell up, Sakura."_

"Your...duty," the other counsellor, Koharu, repeated, spelling each syllable with the same dangerously calm voice. "How is you breaking in this cell instead of carrying out your mission your duty, miss Haruno?"

_Mission, my...__**Rule one**__: voice levelled._

Sakura was well aware that she couldn't afford to stay silent too long. She felt Sasuke shift besides her, but decided against having anything close to eye contact with him, for it would only disturb her.

"It's something I have to do for someone's sake, for someone's _memory's_ sake actually," she said, trying to keep her voice steady, holding their accusing stares.

"This has nothing to do with the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki's unfortunate death," the woman replied with a nonchalant hand gesture.

Sakura felt her insides churn and thought she would lose it.

_**The Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki?**__ How dare you, you stupid, wrenched old parchment, talk about him with as carefree a manner as this? _

She heard Sasuke's growl and was about to blurt out whatever foolish, angry words that were dancing on her tongue, eyes narrowed dangerously, when a voice, a familiar voice she felt herself most relieved to hear, prevented her from committing the stupidity Yamato had warned her against.

"His name was Uzumaki Naruto, and he is the village's hero and Rokudaime. Don't refer to him as anything other than that."

Stepping out from the shadows came Tsunade, her green coat looking blue in the dimness of the cell, her blond bangs faintly glimmering in the silver moonlight. Her piercing amber eyes scanned her surroundings, from the few men (Sakura guessed it had to be the elder Jounins) standing cautiously at the door, silent shadows of the counsellors, softened for a fleet second at the sight of Sasuke (_alive-alive-alive_) and Sakura confronting the elderly pair side by side, before scrutinizing the counsellors coldly.

It was as though the mere presence of her master washed away all the anger, the disgust, the exhaustion, all that horrible mix of deadly intertwined, clashing emotions Sakura was feeling just a while ago. Tsunade could instantly bring out in Sakura what most people failed to: temper control. Realizing how close she had been to blow everything off in a moment of anger, Sakura felt ashamed, but the fire struggling inside her, battered by all the challenges, all the responsibility, all the ire, came back to life, making her feel revived and strengthened.

"What a party you've gathered her, Homura-san, Koharu-san," Tsunade said, her voice glacial. "How come I haven't been invited?"

"You should stay out of this, Tsunade," Homura warned her with a voice equally cold.

"Really? And why would that be?"Tsunade asked with feigned ignorance.

"This is the execution of a criminal. It has nothing to do with you," the elderly man replied.

He then turned to their escort and, with a sharp nod towards said criminal, he added curtly:

"Take him."

Scarcely had the Jounins stepped out of the shadows when Sakura bolted in front of Sasuke, shielding him with her body, eyebrows so furrowed in determination that they were nearly meeting. She heard Sasuke's sharp inhale, but he kept silent, which she found herself, in that tense, confused, dangerous situation, feeling grateful for.

_Not a word, Sasuke. Not a single one or it'll be the last._

"You're not taking him _anywhere_," she said, voice dripping with threat.

She was..._threatening experienced Jounins_? She didn't know where that came from. It was stupid, reckless, and most probably useless. She was thus genuinely surprised when she saw the two grown men involuntarily stop dead in their tracks, looking at her with expressions she couldn't quite figure.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop drastically, and it had nothing to do with the cold night air. The counsellors' faces looked blanched, severe and macabre. Sakura avoided looking at the Godaime, at all costs. She didn't want to see shock, disapproval, or, worse, disappointment.

_Shit._

"Take. Him," Homura hissed in a low, anger-strangled voice.

As she saw one of the men warily eyeing her master (from whom she could _thankfully_ see just the back), the young kunoichi finally understood the real reason behind the counsellors' subordinates' hesitation.

_They're Jounins. They follow her orders. And I'm her __**apprentice**__._

Sakura almost scoffed loudly at herself.

_Did I really think for even a second I had anything to do with that?_

"NOW," the gray-haired, bespectacled man howled.

The two Jounins started, as if stung by the deadly dangerous tone Homura used, and drew nearer to Sakura, who couldn't help herself any longer. She scoffed. Out loud.

The younger of the two men, who seemed midway through his thirties and whose nerves were most probably the ones most affected by the whole situation, gave in to anger.

"Out of the way, little bitch," he bellowed, coming straight for her.

Sakura felt instantly motion behind her.

_Shit, Sasuke. _

Alarmed, her last reflex was to catch his wrists with her hands, to prevent any foolish action from his part, and wait for the fist directed at her to land on her face. She felt Sasuke struggle to let loose, but she hung in, firmly gripping his hands, feeling his hot breath on the back of her neck, reflexively closing her eyes when the man towered over her, waiting for an impact...that would never come.

She felt a rush of cold air, heard quick steps, a shocked exclamation, and a loud snapping sound. Opening her eyes, she found her master firmly gripping the Jounin's hand, a stern glower smouldering in her sharp eyes.

"I am not used to that kind of cowardly act from you, Ashura," she coldly reprimanded the man.

His eyes suddenly widened, then he lowered his head before deeply bowing to the woman who released his hand.

"My deepest apologies, Hokage-sama," he whispered in a strained voice, unable to raise his head it seemed, stiff and awkward in that unhealthy, poisonous silence of which curtain was once again drawn on the cell, clouding the minds in a mist of nervousness.

His acolyte merely stood there, retreating before the imposing silhouette of the Godaime, not daring to move forward, unable to come back prisoner-less to the counsellors.

Sakura let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. She was clutching Sasuke's wrists so hard she was sure she was digging her nails in his skin, but she didn't care. All that mattered was to keep him away from those two geezers, at all costs.

"Tsunade, you are trespassing. You can't just barge in to prevent an execution that has already been decided," Koharu said with a wavering voice, yet with eyes as dead as a snake's.

"I'm asking for appeal."

All the heads turned to face Sakura, as she determinedly spoke those words. She took a quick glance at her master, hoping to see benevolence, support, approval, _anything-please-anything-that-would-show-me-I'll-succeed_. However, the Godaime's face was unreadable.

"Appeal? _Appeal?_" The female counsellor snickered before spitting with a condescending tone, "Do you honestly think you can just come up with something like that when you are yourself in muddy waters, resorting to shameless methods to get to this cell, disregarding orders, showing utter disrespect for the rules the village has gone by from before you were born, inviting yourself in a case that doesn't concern you? Just _who_ do you think you are, Haruno Sakura?"

* * *

Up until now, Sasuke had abided by the one rule she had set: keeping silent. But now...Now he was horrifyingly realizing...

_This can cost her._

_This can cost her dearly._

He shouldn't have let her from the very beginning. He should have seen. He should have known.

He knew now, he had been too relieved to let some hope in to prevent her from doing this utter foolishness. He just _had_ to act like the selfish bastard that was dyed deep in his bones.

_Damn it. Damn it all to hell. _

He should have just settled with her killing him. He should have, he should have...

_Stop. Breathe. Focus._

_What do you want?_

_Keeping her safe. If I'm going down, then so be it. But I'm not dragging her down with me._

Sasuke was about to shake her hands off when she suddenly released her grasp over him. She kept silent, not answering the old hag, and Sasuke understood that it was his turn to talk. He was going to tell them to just forget that little incident, since he was ready to follow them...

He had barely opened his mouth when the Godaime shot him a glare he would never forget. It was as though the words glimmered neatly in her falcon eyes, sending him a clear missive.

_**Do. Not. **_

He hesitated. Consequently, his words would never be heard, for they would never be spoken. Sakura had just decided to break that brittle silence, during which cold logic and abnegation were clashing.

"I'm afraid I don't go by that name anymore."

For a second, Sasuke lost trail of everything that was going on and found himself desiring nothing more than to pummel her right there.

_What the...? It's not the time for bad jokes. _

"Sakura, this is not..." he said in a barely audible voice, even for him, before being dryly silenced by an elbow right at the pit of his stomach. It took all of his willpower not to grunt, since it took him completely by surprise.

"What do you mean?" Koharu asked in a cautious tone, narrowing her eyes to the extent that they completely disappeared among the wrinkles that creased her face, while her partner adjusted his spectacles on his nose with more force than intended, causing them to creak faintly.

The first sunrays were now making their way to the room, joyously dancing on Sakura's back, making that white circle emblem on her back faintly glow in the uncertain penumbra. Sakura slowly turned to him, and so he was facing her for the first time since the solemn entrance of the counsellors. He didn't know why, but he had been stupidly apprehending to look at her face. However, one glance at her eyes sufficed to erase that uneasy dread. Her eyes were _determined-alight-fiery_.

They exchanged an eloquent glare, and Sasuke felt an amused smirk tug at his lips, but he managed to keep a blank face. She then surprised everyone yet again.

She unzipped his shirt.

"Haruno Sakura, what is the meaning of these _**indecent**_ and _**outrageous**_..."

"Keep quiet, old man," Tsunade shushed him, raising her hand to quieten him, a feral smile adorning her lips. "She already told you, hasn't she? She doesn't go by that name anymore."

The Uchiha heir didn't have the least idea what she was doing, let alone what she was up to, but it didn't matter to him. At that moment when their eyes met, he _knew_. She knew what she was doing. She was in charge. And whatever he would do or say would just get in the way.

_Shut up and look smart, eh? Not a bad plan._

She uncovered the left part of his torso, showing to everyone the "Bind" seal that was engraved in blood letters over his heart.

"Call me _Uchiha_ Sakura."

* * *

_Don't-look-at-him-don't-look-at-him-don't-look-at-him_.

Sakura was trying hard to look strong, trying hard to ignore her erratic heartbeat that was threatening to drive her mad, trying hard to get herself to look at the counsellors. She had to keep eye contact with them, in order for them to register that she wasn't anywhere near bluffing. She just hoped Sasuke wasn't looking too dumb and giving away that he didn't know, in the least, what that mere symbol really meant, for she couldn't get herself to glance at him.

She turned back to face the counsellors. Koharu's eyes were the widest anyone had seen them so far, her mouth was slightly agape, pallid and shocked, whereas Homura was ashen and unbelieving, as if he was meeting with the ghost of a long-lost person.

The first person to speak was unexpected. It was Ashura, the middle-aged Jounin who had been standing reverently behind the Hokage, and who was now looking appalled, eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

"Kami's name...Is that really...the Nidaime's seal?" he inquired, voice wavering with awe.

"It can't be," Homura snapped, annoyed but still very pale. "The girl is too young. She can't know."

"I'm afraid I do, Homura-_sama_," Sakura replied, sardonically insisting on the suffix, gaining courage from Tsunade's proud smile. She lightly tapped on Sasuke's seal (he was _so-stiff-so-tense_), pointed at her own chest, before declaring, green eyes flashing.

"Sasuke and I are bound by the Nidaime's seal. _We are married by Konoha's highest law!_"

The cell was now bathed in the faint dawn's sunrays, but it seemed the sun's warmth couldn't get its way through the thick barrier of dread surrounding the room. Still, as she saw the counsellors horrified looks, Sakura felt a smug smile tug her lips upwards.

"What?" she heard the faint word coming from behind her, and her smile turned to a sadder one.

She had done the only thing that could have saved him, but still...

_I'm sorry._

_

* * *

_

"Call me _Uchiha_ Sakura."

_**What?**_

He hadn't heard her well. That must have been it. It didn't make any sense. There was no way Sakura would turn out an Uchiha overnight. He was, he has always been, the only survivor of the clan to live in Konoha.

"_We are married by Konoha's highest law!"_

For a moment, Sasuke's mind went blank. He stopped being aware of his surroundings. There was a single word ringing at his ears, continuously and intermittently, like a shrine's bell: married.

_Married? What is that supposed to mean?_

He suddenly felt like he was seven years old again, and he heard his mother's voice (_gentle-tender-warm_) echoing painfully in his head.

"_That's when two people exchange vows to stay together forever, Sasuke."_

But he didn't exchange anything like that with Sakura. What the heck was going on? What had she done? What was she planning to do? Why the _fuck_ didn't he know anything?

They weren't married. They just **couldn't** be. For the basic reason that it wouldn't arrange anything, would it?

Sasuke resurfaced when he felt Sakura's fingertips lightly tapping his seal. He felt..._weird_ again, as if some of Sakura's chakra (_feelings_ was the first word that came to his mind, but he impatiently brushed it off) were directly channelled to his heart (_him_, he rectified again, annoyed and confused). He felt (he wasn't really, it was as if he was getting faint impressions, he couldn't really explain it, even to himself) growing determination lighting up within him...then, it went as suddenly as it came, when Sakura took away her hand.

That in itself made him recall the situation at hand, and, taking a glance at the counsellors, he was surprised to find them gaping at the pink-haired kunoichi, both very pale. Sasuke passed his hand over his face, trying to muster a placid face. Even with all this confusion wreaking havoc in his mind, he couldn't afford letting the counsellors find out that he didn't have the least idea about what was happening.

"So, Homura-san, Koharu-san, what do you say about the current situation?" Tsunade asked with feigned worry.

"Silence, Tsunade. Know your limits," Koharu snarled, visibly exasperated.

"The Nidaime's seal...So it has come down to this," Homura spoke slowly.

The male counsellor took off his spectacles to pinch the bridge of his nose. He seemed older in the pale, shy daylight, and perhaps was he as exhausted as Sakura was.

"As Sasuke's...wife," Sakura began, visibly hesitating on the word.

Wife? _Wife?_ Was this really..._**for real?**_

"I'm asking for..." Sakura carried on with a more decided voice.

"I know what you're asking for, _Uchiha_ Sakura," Homura interrupted her. "I know," he added in a soft voice, and never before had he sounded so old.

"Homura!" Koharu yelled, perplexed.

He gave her a knowing look which quietened her, before turning to Sakura.

"Ashura, Kaito, we will be going. There will be a re-trial tomorrow, regarding the new...conditions. Tsunade," he added with a curt nod towards her.

As the council and its escort were retreating, he paused, turned back and sent a sharp look to Sasuke, before adjusting his spectacles.

"Don't think it's over, little girl."

With that warning said, they left.

The sun was now shining boldly, warming up the walls, erasing the remaining shards of nervousness, washing away the anxiety. The Godaime was scrutinizing him with her amber pupils, concerned. She then sighed before turning to leave.

"Shishou," Sakura called, voice filled with uncertainty.

"It's okay, Sakura. You did well," she said, not facing her student, but with a very tender voice, before leaving.

The door then closed.

For a long, silent moment, they stood as they were, Sakura turning her back on him, and him lost in an absent-minded contemplation of the emblem her red top bore.

"We did it."

She sounded somewhat relieved, but...there was bitterness in the way her eyes glanced at him when she finally faced him.

"Sakura, are we...?"

He didn't have the power, nor the will to complete his sentence. Her eyes seemed to darken but he wasn't sure, for she averted them.

"Yeah..."

"Look at me."

She didn't move. Instead, it seemed as though she avoided his eyes in a more intent way.

"_Look at me._"

He hasn't sounded this firm for a long time, and he hasn't used this tone while talking to her since their Genin days. It took him aback a bit to see her comply.

"How on earth...?"

"First of all, you have to bind me to complete the process."

"I don't know what that means, and I don't give a damn. I want explanations."

She shot him an infuriated glare. Exhaustion had been wearing their nerves out; they were both at their limit.

"I'm not giving any," she snapped right back at him. "Not now anyway."

"I have the right to know. _Now_."

Sasuke didn't know why, but he was feeling angry. Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose before sighing, which only added to the young man's irritation.

"Look, I'm really not in the mood for useless bickering right now, so let's do as I say..."

"I'm tired of doing as you say. I'm tired of just walking in the dark, waiting for you to deign explain what you plan on doing to me. I'm tired of following this cold damn lead of yours!"

"Shut up! Who do you think I'm doing this for?" Sakura snarled, eyes on fire.

"Not for me, but for someone whose bones are rotting six feet under, right, Sakura?" he answered back spitefully.

A loud smack resonated in the cell as she slapped him.

"How dare you...How dare you..." she repeated, voice low and strained, eyes widened with shock and fury.

His left cheek was stinging, but it didn't compare to how regret was playing cruelly at his heartstrings.

"I can't believe it...You scum...I can't believe it..."

Sakura's anger was so great that it was nearly choking her. She seemed at a loss, not finding the words she strived to reach. Sasuke suddenly felt a dull pain, somewhere in his chest. He knew: it was her heart's throbbing. He just knew. Running away from it, dreading it, wouldn't change that fact: they were bound, together, with something transcending reality.

"A pile of rotting bones, that's what he is to you? That's it?" she shouted at him, pushing him roughly. "_Answer me!_ Where has your anger gone? Self-centred bastard, _I told you to answer me!_"

His back had reached the wall. They came to a stop.

_Way to go, __**self-centred bastard**__._

She was panting. She was exhausted. He was on edge, but...

"I'm sorry," he said, looking intently at her, his expression blank, but with sincere eyes.

She looked at him with wounded eyes. They stared at each other for a while, silently. Sakura then retreated, turning her back on him.

"I don't owe you any explanation."

He kept silent.

"That doesn't mean I won't give you one," she added after a while. "It's just...I have gone through the worst 24 hours of my life. I need rest."

"Hn," he acquiesced half-heartedly.

"Pff, that non-committing grunt of yours is really horrible," she smirked as she faced him once more.

Her face grew worried again.

"We have to complete the marriage..."

"Is it really...for real?" he asked, not really knowing what he meant, giving in to a stupid, naive urge.

She paused, scanning him with her viridian eyes and, for a moment, Sasuke got the nasty feeling that she was seeing through him, examining each and every one of his insecurities, doubts, and disappointments.

"Yes," she said in the softest, most brittle voice he had heard her use. "Yes," she repeated more firmly, "I'm afraid it is."

Sasuke let the news sink in.

_We're-married-we're-married-we're-married._

It sounded stupid. It sounded irrelevant (how on earth was that supposed to save him? Or had it just done so?). Most of all, he didn't know what to make of this. No, wait...

"It's just a decoy, right? And after this, we'll get...we'll get it undone, won't we?"

He marvelled at the fact that he sounded almost hopeful. The pink-haired girl wore a cryptic expression he couldn't quite decipher. She then had a bittersweet, almost cruel smile.

"Some things never change, do they?"

She wasn't asking, she was stating a fact.

"That seal is inerasable, Sasuke," she said.

"What do you mean?" he asked briskly, already knowing the answer.

"I mean forever."

The word resounded mystically in his ears. Forever? What does forever mean again?

This couldn't be. He felt unbelieving, shocked, numb. It was too much for him to register, and he began thinking that perhaps Sakura's desire to put off the explanations was a sound one.

_Do I hate it? Does it irritate me? Is it for real? _

Yes, it was for real. And it was forever. And he just didn't know how he felt about this one. It was cold, it was confusing, it was the unknown calling from far away. That, he didn't like.

"You have to bind me," Sakura pressed him, a tinge of pink now colouring her cheeks.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked in a hoarser voice than he intended.

"It means you have to do the exact same things I've done to seal you."

The exact same things? What was she talking about?

Ah, yes. There were those hand seals. Since she had done them slowly, he had been easy to learn them, just like that. Call it an unconscious habit one develops when being a shinobi. Then the "Bind" symbol drawn with his blood, before...

Sasuke's mind came to a halt as he recalled what Sakura did next.

(_She's kissed him. Over his __**damn**__ heart.)_

"Do you remember the seals, or shall I show them to you once more?" Sakura asked, as she was taking off her forehead protector, with a seemingly casual voice. The pink spots on her cheeks seemed to have expanded, though.

"Sakura?"

He didn't know why, but the temperature seemed to have increased drastically in the cell.

"Yes?"

"Do I have to do _**all the stuff**_ you've done?"

Her grip on her forehead protector hardened. She took light steps towards his bed before sitting in it. She was avoiding eye contact. So was he.

"Yes."

An uneasy atmosphere had settled in. The raven was for some reason all stiff, his body was tense, he felt awkward, _embarrassed_.

_Shit._

"Is there really no other way?" he couldn't help but ask.

Sakura's eyes narrowed dangerously. She then did something completely unexpected. She let out a humourless, bitter laughter.

"I can't believe it. You really never change. Do you honestly think that I want this, this half-union with you, do you think anyone would like a lifetime of loneliness with you? I have considered every possibility, searched for any alternative, and when it came down to it, to this half-baked idea of a marriage, I _hesitated_, Sasuke. Were you really worth what I was sacrificing to save you? The answer came naturally: of course not. And everything you've done so far just reminds me of how _unworthy_ you really are. You don't even acknowledge this huge effort I'm making to save your sorry ass. No, you're just thinking about your little old pathetic self again, right?"

A huge, self-repulsing smirk was plastered on her lips. It was fascinating. It was the saddest thing he'd ever seen. He managed to keep an unreadable face, though. A lifetime of loneliness, this is what she thought was ahead of her. For some reason, it annoyed him.

"But, in spite of it all, I remember what he died for, so what I'm giving can't compare to what he gave..."

"I'm sorry."

That astounded her. Her eyes were filled with genuine disbelief. She sighed, a heavy, coming-from-the-depth-of-her-tiredness-filled-lungs sigh.

"Shall we complete the sealing now?"

He silently nodded, resigned. If she was ready to go there, even when he didn't know what it would bring him, other than his life, then he couldn't stay back. After all, he was already sealed. There was no going back, he realised, and it made him feel sore and apprehending. He walked over to her and sat beside her. She then hid his eyes with her forehead protector.

"What are you doing?" he inquired with an even voice, not resisting her.

"Blindfolding you," she replied curtly.

"What for?"

"Isn't that obvious? I don't want you to see...well, I'm blindfolding you," she said incoherently, embarrassment peeking in her voice.

"And how am I going to find..." he started uneasily, feeling her arms brushing against his hair.

He was going to say the "right spot", but it didn't feel very commendable somehow.

"I'll guide you," she whispered, seemingly reading his thoughts. "Now, ready? Okay. You can start."

He bit his thumb, tasted blood then made the seals he saw Sakura perform a few hours ago, trying not to hear the clear, ringing unzipping sound coming to his ears. When he was finished, he hesitantly let his thumb hanging up in midair. Then he felt Sakura's warm fingers close up on his hand, and..._guide_ him.

As he wrote "Bind", on her skin (_warm-warm-warm_), he tried not to think about the whole situation (_soft-warm-alive_). He swiftly took back his arm when done, but he had yet to finish. He felt Sakura hesitate, then she gently grasped his head. He felt her fingers intertwine with his hair, and noticed, for the first time, the faint scent flowing around her. It wasn't anything distinct, but it wasn't something dislikeable either. When he got close enough, the scent of his own blood attracted him, and so he awkwardly put his lips on the seal.

With that done, feeling heat creeping up on his cheeks and on the back of his neck, he briskly backed away. Before doing so, he felt, just against his lips, Sakura's heartbeat, which left him dishevelled and unsettled.

It wasn't until he heard a muffled cry that he remembered the last stage: pain. Intolerable pain. He just stood there, in the darkness of the blindfold, disoriented, not daring taking it away, not really knowing what to do, hearing muted sobs. Suddenly, he felt it. An erratic heartbeat.

_Sakura's._

Just what did that seal exactly do to them?

_Well, I'll know soon enough. _

Meanwhile, it seemed the fit had passed. Sakura was breathless, but she managed to zip her top.

"I'll be taking this now," she said in a barely audible voice, sounding weakened.

The blindfold was swiftly taken away, and his eyes made a not-so-gentle encounter with the sunlight. It took his eyes a while to readapt, and when they did, it was barely in time to register that Sakura was reaching her limit. He caught the symptoms right away this time and, when she fell forward, he made sure to catch her with his arm. He then gently rested her on the bed and sat on the floor, next to it, leaning against the wall. Sakura half-opened her eyes.

"I'm sorry. I think I need some sleep."

Sasuke had the nagging feeling she wasn't apologizing to him. He answered, nonetheless.

"It's okay."

Sakura's eyes suddenly shot open. She took a closer look at him, thoroughly examining his face, in silence.

"What?"

"Are you...blushing?"

_What?_

"I'm not," he answered, obstinately ignoring the heat coming from the back of his neck, which he strived to cool down by leaning on the cold wall.

He averted his eyes, conscious of the fact that Sakura was staring at him. It was annoying and irritating, especially for somebody who barely escaped death only to embrace an unexpected marriage. When he was about to snap, she suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. It was the first time he'd heard her laugh this hard, a real, genuine, warm laughter, and it kind of drained his irritation away.

Her kind laughter slowly faded away, and silence settled once again, devoid of all emotion, only filled with deep fatigue.

"_Okaa-san, what does it mean to be married?"_

A bird, most likely perched onto some tree nearby, began chirping joyfully, welcoming just another of Konoha's bright mornings. Sasuke closed his eyes.

"_That's when two people exchange vows to stay together forever, Sasuke."_

He was feeling extremely detached of reality, which only nowwas slowly sinking in him. He felt blank, empty.

"Congratulations," Sakura said in a very sleepy voice, although he could feel cold apathy in it, which made him understand that she was feeling exactly like him. "You've survived."

He took a sideways glance at her. Her eyes were closed, she was slowly drifting to, if not peaceful, at least soothing slumber. He found himself hoping for her to get her share of rest, as he saw how sunrays completely melted in her vibrant pink hair.

"Ah," he heard himself confirm from far away.

He closed his eyes again. Outside, the bird was still singing.

* * *

**Author's silly rambling:** That's it for you guys. I ended up writing a little less than the last chapter, but still, it's tiring, but oh well, I'm enjoying it like crazy. Hope you enjoy that one too.

I don't need to tell you about the reviews, right? See you soon (I hope ^^').


	6. Chapter 6

**Author note:** Hi! Remember me? No? Go back in time a little. Well, a little further than that. And a little more. There. Yes, it's me. I'm fortunately not dead. And here is the infamous new chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. Srsly. Kishimoto owns it. Rly.

* * *

**Chapter 6:** Forever (And Ever)

When she first opened her eyes, it took Sakura's mind a while before her brain processed that she hadn't been sleeping in her bed. Another moment to register that this was certainly not her house. And one last minute to remember she wasn't single anymore, be it for the better, or (Her surroundings ceased to seem hazy and her eyes met charcoal dark ones) for the worse.

"You're awake."

Sasuke's voice was as calm and even as ever. He was in the same position, sitting on the floor, leaning on the wall, and she wondered about the amount of time she spent sleeping. She opened her mouth to ask him, but nothing came out. His eyes were blank, like they always were (_Like they'll always be_), but it seemed as though it was only a façade. Sakura couldn't quite figure it, but she was feeling something laying deeper, hidden behind that dark mist which always seemed to darken his eyes, something she never sensed before.

"Are you alright?"

His voice had remained even, but something stirred inside her, something that resembled a resonance coming from someone else's (_his_) soul, and she experienced a faint, yet warm feeling, which washed over her and left her _somewhat-kind-of-sort-of_ dazed. She slowly tried to get up, leaning on one elbow, ruffling through her messy hair with her other hand to try to hide the tinge of pink she was feeling on her cheeks. His voice had been toneless, but she still _felt_ that warmth, somewhere around her seal. It had been concern. _His_ concern.

_Damn it. And I'm supposed to get used to this? _

She paused. For her to actually feel it, his concern must have been pretty darn strong.

_Don't think about it._

She then remembered that she hadn't answered him yet. She took a wary glance at him. He hadn't budged, absent eyes still on her, face as blank as ever. If it weren't for that subtle hint of a feeling that had stricken her heart only seconds ago, she wouldn't have known that he was patiently waiting for an answer, since his stillness and features only suggested indifference.

"I'm okay," she heard herself answer, her voice not entirely awake.

She'd managed to sit at last.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Somewhere between 10 and 11 am, guessing by the sun's position," he answered after glancing at the window.

"Oh, god. That's the latest I've ever woken up, and there is so much to do," Sakura grumbled. "There's your re-trial we have to prepare, and all those measures to get you out, and stupid hospital duty…Shit," she cursed at last, before turning to him, annoyed. "Why t_he heck_ haven't you waked me up?"

Maybe she was being unfair. Maybe Sasuke had nothing to do with her sleeping in. Maybe the real reason behind her annoyance was that helplessly expressionless face that didn't seem to change no matter what.

Sasuke arched a brow, sighed before gazing absent-mindedly at the window, completely ignoring her.

_You stupid-ungrateful-cocky_ **bastard**.

Annoyance was slightly turning to exasperation while she tried to keep her temper under control. She'd just had a long, hard night saving his ass, and he didn't deign answer a stupid question?

Before any nasty, colorful language could cross her lips, he spoke.

"You looked like you needed your fair share of rest," he said casually, eyes still on the window. "I thought I'd cut you some slack."

It took Sakura a moment to realize she was gaping at him. Everything in him evoked complete indifference, his posture, his tone, the lack of expression on his face. And yet…She didn't recall anything as thoughtful coming from him. Yes, thoughtful. Which only added more messiness and confusion to the entangled feelings she had.

"Err…Thanks," she mumbled, suddenly absorbed by the contemplation of her kunai pouch.

There was a pregnant pause. Sakura sighed, ruffling messily through her hair again. This whole marriage thing…was too much to process, even for her, even when she had already strengthened her resolve and accepted it as inexorable. The very thought that Sasuke and her were now tied by something as sacred as that was hard to believe.

"Sakura."

He was now boring his eyes straight into hers, and she noticed his pupils were firm, serious. He didn't have to add another word. His demanding tone had reminded her that she still owed him something.

"Okay," she said, resigned. "Explanation time."

* * *

"When the Nidaime came to power, Konoha was beginning to divide to clans. Each family was treasuring its special ability and strived to keep it secret and well-guarded, thus causing the citizens to slowly build walls of mistrust and suspicion between the clans. It wasn't just about Senjuu and Uchiha, it was the whole village turning to little minorities which trusted no one but their own, thus causing the whole village's unity to dangerously crumble."

He hadn't been able to sleep, but at least his nerves were now refreshed. Sasuke was also aware, more than ever, of that invisible chain that was binding their very hearts. It was faint, but he could feel Sakura had rest. It was something at the back of his mind, a faint feeling that was detached from his being but that belonged to him nonetheless. More accurately, it belonged to them. Together.

Sasuke didn't know exactly, but he guessed that it had something to do with what everyone seemed to call the "Nidaime's seal" his chest now bore.

"Oi, are you listening to me?" Sakura asked, visibly ticked off by his apparent absent-minded face.

He glanced at her. She seemed invigorated. Not her best shape, but at least her face held some color, and her eyes were livelier. She was sitting on the bed, while he was still in the same position, leaning on the wall.

"Hn."

Sasuke had discovered that his "horrible non-committing grunt" visibly annoyed her, even though she rarely commented on it. The raven suspected that she considered that as useless bickering, which why she always held back on the words, but clearly showed her irritation on her face. And that (although he would never admit it) amused him highly.

Sakura didn't carry on her story-telling. Was she sulking? That amused him even more. He sighed so as to avoid displaying a conniving smirk, which would only cause her temper to flare.

"So the whole village's harmony was threatened," he said, both to confirm his listening and to invite her to continue.

"The higher-ups were unreasonable and obstinate," Sakura complied. "As he was striving to reach an understanding, Nidaime accidentally stumbled on the solution."

Sakura paused, eyes on the window. Sasuke decided not to press her so as not to break her chain of thoughts (_Chain_, he smirked at himself. It all seemed to come down to this word, which will forever hold a different meaning for him).

"Intermarriage," Sakura said with a distant voice.

"Intermarriage?" Sasuke asked skeptically.

"Yes. If two people, from different clans, were to marry, then it would create bonds between them, right?"

"If you say so," the raven answered, still doubtful.

"_Nidaime_ thought so. But there was a great obstacle to those marriages, and it wasn't the lack of young people with different origins wanting to establish a family," Sakura said, eyes still on the window.

"The "walls of mistrust and suspicion"?" Sasuke guessed.

He didn't know where this was going, but Sakura had announced earlier that she was ready to give him the explanation he had requested, and he assumed that this little historical recapitulation was essential to understand the whole situation.

Sakura slowly tilted her head towards him, her face holding no expression but eyes faintly glistening with something he couldn't name.

"I got it wrong?" Sasuke asked, holding her sharp stare (_dull-eyes-green-eyes-viridian-eyes_).

"No, that's not it, you got it right. It's just…"

Her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes for a moment.

"You really _are_ listening to me," she finally said, her eyes meeting his again.

He perceived the slightest change in her casual tone; he could discern something like surprise, or nostalgia, perhaps a little of both. But again, it was Sakura, and he was never sure of anything when it came to her (_she's-changed-she's-changed-she's-changed_). The fact that the thirteen-year-old girl he left on a bench had turned to the strong, unreadable young woman he was now facing was still unsettling him. She was now capable of taking him aback, and he wasn't used to that.

"Does it surprise you?" he found himself asking, not knowing when exactly he had opened his mouth to, or was it that the words escaped him without him noticing?

It didn't really matter, he reckoned. If he had asked, it was because he wanted to know what was going through her mind. That was when it happened again: he got impressions of her feelings, faintly, intermittently, nagging, nibbling at the back of his mind, tickling his seal. It wasn't clear. It was mystic, deep, strange. It was a connection. And he _knew_ that if she hadn't been surprised up to now, she definitely was, at that moment.

"It's not like that," she finally answered, averting her eyes, passing a timid hand through her hair. "You never listened. Now that you do, it's kind of unusual."

She paused, before adding in a whisper, "It's even a little unsettling."

Sasuke felt something close to relief wash over him. So he wasn't the only one facing unusual situations, was he? It was comforting, reassuring to know that they were both experiencing the same uneasy, new feeling. Sakura then chose to carry on her interrupted explanation.

"Where was I? Ah, yes. So the clans firmly opposed any relationship that wasn't within the clan itself, because they judged the other party as untrustworthy. That's when Nidaime created this seal which will later on bear his name."

There was a pregnant pause, during which the cell was filled with the faint whistling of the morning breeze. Sasuke felt both eagerness and dread churning his insides.

"That seal is a unique one," Sakura continued, her voice eerily echoing in the emptiness of the cell. "Technically, it links the bride and groom-to-be chakra channels."

Sakura cast him a piercing, knowing look.

"Did you get that?" she asked, and he had the nasty feeling she already knew the answer.

He slowly shook his head, his pride somehow suffering from him admitting the fact he hadn't understood.

_Linking chakra channels…How __**in the hell**__ am I supposed to know what it means?_

"Basically, it means that both chakra systems will follow identical patterns. Since chakra wavers or grows stronger depending on the person's state, the…couple," she added after a moment's hesitation, that sole word demanding much effort to be spoken it seemed, "will be able to sense each other's feelings. Feelings isn't the right word to describe it, it's more like…"

She paused, searching for the right word, biting her bottom lip as she was doing so. Sasuke lost himself in a distracted contemplation of her thoughtful, frown-marred face. Biting her lip while thinking, that was a habit he didn't recall she had back when they were still Genin. Her lips were pink, a darker shade than her hair, they were _plump-soft-as-they-kissed_…

Blank.

_Shit…What. _**The Hell**_. Am I. __**Thinking?**_

It was too late. He had already remembered the feeling of her lips on his chest, and he had to fight off the heat creeping up the back of his neck. This was stupid. _Stupid-stupid-_**stupid**.

_Focus, dammit. _

She was still lost in thought, and he somehow was relieved to see that she had been oblivious to his embarrassed shifting, absorbed and concentrated.

_What was she saying? _he wondered, irritated with himself and his _silly-distracted-annoying_ mind. Something like searching for an accurate word, which suddenly came to him.

"More like impressions?" he mused, getting her attention once again, voice hoarser than intended.

* * *

"More like impressions?"

_Impressions. _

It was the _exact_ word to describe it. Impressions. It was _unclear-vague-wavering_. It was an _impression_.

This was _weird_, to say the least. Even though she had somewhat known what lay ahead of her by choosing to resort to the Nidaime's seal, it was just theoretical. Experiencing it, however, was a whole other cup of sake. And her partner (_husband_ just didn't come out right) was Sasuke, for Kami's sake. Uchiha _freaking_ Sasuke. And he got it _freaking_ right, again.

Her eyes met with his obsidian, expressionless pupils, and locked with them. She didn't know why, nor how much time they spent like that. She just knew that after _a-second-a-moment-a-while_, she saw something light up his mourn, dark eyes. She was so surprised that she didn't get to decipher the expression (because it was _expression_ his eyes held) that was _maybe-probably-definitely_ a familiar one. It lasted a second, one brittle second, and went as suddenly and briskly as it came, because it was Sasuke, and she never got the time to get it right with him. Within her, somewhere underneath all of the anger, and the rage, and the loath, something she thought she locked up and lost long ago stirred inside her.

"Sakura?"

His soft call tore her away from her internal thoughts.

She cast one last thoughtful look at him.

_He's just a responsibility. Whatever he thinks or feels-__**if he feels at all**__- doesn't matter._

"'Impressions' is the exact word to describe it," she finally let out with a darker voice than intended.

_All of it doesn't matter._

_

* * *

_

"The closer we are, the stronger the impressions get," she carried on with the same casual voice, but he noticed _something-something-_**something** in her eyes that wasn't the ordinary faint glistening they held.

Something a little darker was burning in her viridian pupils, and that had him intrigued. He had yet to figure out what exactly it was when she swiftly got a little closer to him, her eyes still on him, her face unreadable again.

"And whenever we touch…" she said with a hushed tone, taking him by surprise.

She put her hand (soft and warm and _disorienting_) on his arm. Scarcely had he registered her gesture that something began beating in his chest, and it wasn't _his_ heart.

_Her heartbeat. I'm _feeling_ her heartbeat. _

It was _weird-breaking-surreal_. He had already felt it before, but not to that extent. He was now able to hear it echoing within him, like some ancient melody he would have learnt long ago, forgetting most of it but conserving the remains sealed within his soul. It was life. And it shook him off in a drastic way (_disheveled-empty-now-whole_). It took all of his willpower not to show any of the turmoil shaking off his mind on his face. And yet, and yet…That feeling, as chaotic as it seemed, was still soothing something deep, something broken, something devoid and numb, in his mind, his soul, his heart. It was absurd, it was contradicting, it was conflict.

He raised his head and reached her eyes with his. Green eyes, dull eyes, viridian pouring fire in his pupils, or was it his dark eyes sucking in some light?

It stopped too late or too early, he didn't have a clue what exactly. All he knew was that as soon as she took away her hand, averting her eyes and shifting uncomfortably in the bed, a tiny part of him he promptly shushed and ushered to nothingness, yearned for that contact once again.

* * *

_What the heck was that for?_

She had acted stupidly. Brainlessly pulling out a stunt like this, what the hell was she thinking? Wait, she **hadn't** been thinking at all.

_Shit._

The most annoying thing about it was that his face and his eyes had remained blank and cryptic. She had given in to a childish surge, and as a result was furious and irritated with herself, and the sensation of Sasuke's heart beating against her ribs wasn't helping her regain her composure. Only until then did she realize that she hadn't finished her sentence.

"We can feel each other's heartbeat," she said in a very quiet tone, looking at the window, wondering about how on earth she got to that point.

Timid, trembling silence.

"Hn."

_Fuck. What am I supposed to understand from this idiotic sound, stupid jerk?_

Even when her fists were more than itching to teach him proper dialogue manners, she knew better than to listen to the blazing, betraying whispers of her anger, for she knew that his grunt wasn't what caused her heart to fill itself with rage and pulse it through her system. It was her own irritation at herself that was fuelling her extreme annoyance, and taking it on him wouldn't make it better, quite the contrary. Her rage was born from incomprehension.

"_Nidaime_ did that?"

Sasuke's disbelieving voice tore her away from her internal self-sermon. She blinked at him, lost for a moment, as if waking from a daze. His dark eyes were on her, inquiring.

For some reason, looking at his blank eyes, she felt ashamed of herself for her lack of control over her composure. His dark pupils seemed to drain away all of her irritation. She sighed, completely calmed down by his impassive face. Her futile struggle seemed useless, petty. A half-smile found itself a way to her lips.

"I had the same reaction when I first discovered it," she said. "I didn't expect him to have this-err-twisted trait of personality."

"It's almost too creepy to be believable," Sasuke approved with a smirk.

Sakura fought back the smile with all her might, struggling against that urge to completely tug her lips upwards, but it was a lost battle. She tried to hide it by turning her gaze to the window again. Her eyes wandered leisurely, soaking in the light green of the canopy of a tree she was peeking at. Her mind flew outside, going back to the village, the re-trial, the counselors, the defense she had to come up with, the means to persuade the Jounins to get the things right. And that's how that fleet moment of light-heartedness came to break, the shining shards of it escaping from the window, escorted by the cool breeze. When Sakura came to herself again, she realized that a light frown had knitted her brows together. The smile was gone, lost in brittle seconds, and she found herself regretting it.

"I still fail to see how that seal was supposed to bring Konoha's clans together," Sasuke pointed out.

Sakura was first engulfed in confusion.

"How come? Didn't I…"

It then dawned on her that she had left out the most essential part in her explanation.

"I'm a lame story-teller, really," she reprimanded herself. "Not telling you the most important thing about the seal."

How was she to put it into words? She became faintly aware that her fingers had found their way to her kunai pouch and began fidgeting restlessly with it.

"The place where the seal is placed isn't a random choice," she began, gazing subconsciously at his chest. "It is connected directly to the chakra gate intertwined with the heart, the Life Gate. You already know that some shinobi, Gai-sensei and Lee-san for instance, can open some of the eight chakra gates to gain temporary power?"

Sasuke nodded, a light frown marring his features.

"If you open all eight of them, you gain tremendous, terrific power. But it is short-lived, and it results in death. The Life Gate is the last gate to be opened. When it does, it puts so much strain on the heart that it implodes, which is the cause of death."

Sakura willed her fingers to stop that fidgeting (which was highly annoying her), and stiffly rested them on her lap. Her eyes refused to tear away from where she knew the Nidaime's seal was engraved, the same seal that had allowed her to feel Sasuke's heartbeat moments ago.

"The reason why the sealing is so painful is that it forces the Life Gate to take in the stamp of the sealer. In a way, the Life Gate is being opened very faintly for a mere second, but the surge of chakra flowing around the heart is barely what the heart can take without imploding, which causes that insufferable pain."

Sakura stopped, not really knowing how to voice the fact Sasuke needed to hear. At a loss, her eyes finally abandoned his chest to retrieve his eyes, where a perspicacious gleam shimmered.

"What do you mean by 'take in the stamp of the sealer'?" he asked, sounding as though he was weary of the answer. In advance. And she somehow understood him.

Sakura nervously licked her lips.

"Your seal," she said, trying to sound more confident than she was, "will only recognize my lips."

As soon as she said that, she deeply regretted the way she phrased it.

"Your lips," Sasuke repeated, and she didn't know if it was because he wanted to ascertain the word, or because he didn't quite process it.

_Shit. Way to go, Sakura. Couldn't you have come up with something, like, smarter? _

She pinched the bridge of her nose, in a vain attempt to hide the color she felt creeping up on her cheeks. For some reason, Sasuke had averted his eyes from her.

"What I mean is," she carried on, trying to act natural, striving to keep her voice steady, "if another girl kisses you there, you'll die."

Now that she had finally said it, her words seemed devoid, almost ridiculous. An awkward silence settled in between them. The Nidaime's seal seemed to have gained an awful attraction power on her eyes, since she couldn't look anywhere else.

"For real?"

It took Sakura some time to process Sasuke's hushed question. It was the second time she was hearing this same phrase, and, when she dared look at him, she realized he was making the same face. The face of an abandoned child. Somehow, that expression was making her heart beat a _tiny-little-bit_ faster. That feeling was familiar, which highly annoyed her.

"I'm afraid so," she heard herself answer in a strange tone. It took her some time to realize that it had been the same brittle, wavering voice as the last time.

_Shit._

She hated it when he had that kind of tone, when he made that helpless of a face. It was making her feel weird, detached from herself, as though…

_As though I'm thirteen all over again._

Ouch.

Messy ruffling in her hair (a habit she realized had grown on her lately).

Deep internal breathing.

That was the stupidest thought that had crossed her mind in a long time. And a very false one, too. Definitely. Probably. Maybe…

_Geez, girl. Focus._

"If someone else kisses you on the Nidaime's seal, it won't recognize the 'stamp', consequently opening the Life Gate, and so your heart will implode," she continued, switching almost unconsciously to a more professional, medic-like tone. "The villagers had trust issues. That guaranteed something they considered other clans incapable of: faithfulness."

Her eyes, which had strayed away from him in that fleet moment of confusion she had just experienced, fell upon him again. She was relieved to see that his face was back to the plain expressionless mode. At least _that_ she knew how to deal with.

"Does it really guarantee faithfulness, I wonder," he commented skeptically.

Sakura felt a smug smile make its way on her face without her being able to stop it, whether by lack of force or lack of will, she didn't know. She had foreseen the dubious tone.

"I know what you think. 'As long as she doesn't touch the seal, everything is fine', right?" she said, feeling very confident.

Sasuke stiffened a bit, but he nodded.

"Let me ask you a question: would you trust someone as completely as to give them the power to decide whether you live or die, like that, on a whim, just to cheat on your partner?"

Sasuke didn't move. Yet, his eyes glimmered like smoldering charcoals.

"You wouldn't. For the simple, basic reason that survival instinct is stronger than anything else, especially that which would cause you to be unfaithful. A whim, a fleet attraction, an infatuation...Not strong enough. And people wondering about love still don't know it's a pile of ragged dreams draped in delusion."

She fell silent, a little confused. That last line had flown out of her mouth without her realizing it. And that melancholic tone of hers...

Damn. Was she losing it?

She felt, before she noticed, Sasuke's sharp gaze on her. His eyes were still faintly shimmering, like a dying fire, unreadable and coming from so far away.

"Anyway," she carried on hesitantly, striving to retrieve her medic composure, "the seal guaranteed faithfulness, and, in return, Nidaime gave his blessing to the marriage. Anyone going against it ill-willed would be going against Nidaime's will, thus bringing his name shame."

She paused, studying his impassive face. His eyes had lost their dim glitter, but something else was dawning on them: comprehension.

"The counselors," he curtly asserted.

Sakura nodded, relieved he understood quite fast, seeing as she was getting the growing impression they were out of time. How much time had passed since she woke up? How much time could she afford to lose in the cell? Anguish was slowly beginning to get to her, ticking inside her veins.

"Those old geezers (Sasuke smirked, but made no comment whatsoever) lived with Nidaime. They were his disciples, his companions, they respect him, almost worship him. They wouldn't dare do anything that could go against his will, since they have this deep adoration and respect for his memory. Even though they claim that they have always worked for Konoha's greatest good, I'm pretty sure they know they have done wrong when it comes to the Uchiha genocide."

Whatever was in Sasuke's eyes disappeared briskly, leaving only two dark orbs devoid of light, wounded by the ashes of a past she didn't know whether he longed to let go of, or if he was too trapped into his fear of forgetting that he possibly couldn't. For a brittle second, she felt something very familiar (and thus very annoying) play at her heartstrings, before she forcefully shook that feeling off. She realized that, for some obscure, forgotten reason, she had dug her nails very hard in her palms.

_Why does it have to be always so complicated with you? _

She cleared her throat, yet he spoke first.

"You think they regret it?"

It was at moments like these that she realized she really hated his guts. He was a traitor, a stupid, egocentric, wretched jerk. He was a disgusting excuse for a human being, someone she should despise her whole life. And yet, and yet…When he mustered that kind of broken voice, hiding his eyes behind his dark locks, delving into that pain she knew all too well now, she couldn't bring herself to view him as the self-centered, repulsing bastard he was.

_Why do you have to look so fucking human? _

Shit. Damn him. Damn them all.

"Do _you_ regret anything, Sasuke?" she heard herself retort more forcefully than she intended, completely pissed off, not really knowing why.

He looked taken aback. Then he hid his eyes again, and turned his face away, not responding, just plainly looking at the cell door (or so it seemed). Which wasn't really the best thing to improve her mood right now.

She let herself fall from the bed and knelt in front of him. She took his face with both hands, barely repressed a shiver as she felt another heart beat against her ribs (no matter how she saw it, she would never, _ever_ get used to this stupid, diabolic machination of Nidaime's), and forced him to face her. Her eyes bore directly into his obsidian pupils, which seemed dead, absent to her.

"Do you?" she repeated sternly, forgetting to retreat her hands, until he put his on them, removed them but firmly clung to them still, his face unfazed, his eyes scarred in spite of them striving to remain empty, her breathing going along the same rhythm as his heartbeat.

Wounded blackness. That's what she was seeing in his eyes. She didn't know what to make of it, but his obstinate refusal to speak was enraging her. She impatiently shook off his hands, which made the awkward feeling of his heart beating within her vanish at once. For a very brief moment, the emptiness that resulted within her had her disoriented. She swiftly put an end to that inconvenient confusion, which had made her realize a more inconvenient fact: in that fleet moment when he held her hands, she'd grown used to his heartbeat.

_Not good. Not good _**at all**_._

"I don't know if you regret anything, Sasuke, but there's one thing I'm sure of. Deep down, you know you're the same as them. And you're aware that all you've done was completely, utterly wrong, in the most abject way," she said in a calm, disgusted voice that surprised her.

No sooner had she finished talking that Sasuke's eyes flared. For the first time since their Genin days, he shot her a ferocious glare. She didn't recoil. She even mustered _her_ death glare. They stayed like that for some time, glowering fiercely at each other.

_A reaction at long last, eh, Sasuke? You got kind of slow. _

"I am **not** the same as _**them**_," he seethed threateningly.

"You've got blood on your hands too."

"They have cold-bloodedly wiped out an **entire clan**!" Sasuke roared, now completely furious.

"And just because you haven't perpetrated genocide, are you any better?" Sakura retorted, losing the last frail remains of control over her temper. "Didn't you kill people who had nothing to do with your revenge? Don't you have innocent blood on your hands? Does the amount count when those hands are now forever tainted?"

Sasuke's Sharingan activated and the tomoes started spinning irately, and, for the first time, Sakura thought she might have gone too far. She remembered that Sasuke's level as a shinobi was far higher than hers. Don't even get her started on his speed. She tried not to change her expression, but she felt cold sweat slowly running along her spine. She was sitting on the floor, her weapon pouch insensibly left on the bed, in the less advantageous situation. One brutal, rapid movement and her neck would break as easily as an autumn twig.

The Sharingan slowly vanished, its red color fading and finally merging with the obsidian. Sasuke was breathing heavily. He then closed his eyes, and put his trembling fingers on his eyelids.

Sakura used that moment to scramble away from him, getting her kunai pouch in the process. She unconsciously cradled her knees in her arms, rested her chin on them and tried to focus on nothing but the wall across from her. It seemed all of her anger had trickled away with that cold sweat that was sending shivers down her spine.

Fear. Sakura realized that, simply mere seconds ago, she had experienced fear all over again.

* * *

When Sasuke re-opened his eyes, she was at a respective distance from him. He felt helpless.

"My parents, my brother, my clan…I'm not the same."

She didn't say anything. He felt the blood that had harshly rushed to his head only seconds ago slowly stop from boiling, but his mind was still hazy, drown, weak.

"I'm not the same," he heard again, not sure whether he repeated the words, or if it was the echo still ringing in his ears.

There was a pregnant pause, in which Sasuke realized Sakura was avoiding eye contact. He wasn't really sure, but it seemed as though the frail bridge that had made its way between them had been broken in those mere seconds when he lost it to his anger.

"You can lie to me all you want. After all, I don't care anymore. But isn't it time to stop lying to yourself?"

Sakura had spoken casually, in the same exact position. But her words were resonating painfully inside him. They were awakening truth. And it was frightening and unbearable. He had fled his own lucidity for all this time. If he were to begin to listen at last to the inner voice named Reason, the weight of his sins would crash his sanity…

His hand slammed against the wall.

Blank mind. That's what he needed. Blank mind, blank soul, blank face.

His eyes were unconsciously driven to Sakura's crouching form. He met her frank gaze, and, for a second, he had that nasty feeling that she was seeing right through him. Her expression changed to that of regret, but that didn't last long, and she was swiftly back to normal mode once again.

"Anyway, I don't think they'll execute you," Sakura carried on, getting up and dusting her kunai pouch as if nothing happened, and Sasuke found himself grateful for that, "because they know they're up to no good. They just want to save themselves."

They exchanged an eloquent gaze.

_I'm lying to myself. And I'm fully aware of that. But that's the way I am. _

_Contradictions and despair…That's what I'm made of._

* * *

"I shall take my leave then," Sakura announced, her features marred by a worried frown.

She tried opening the cell door. Unsuccessfully.

Shit. Of course it would be locked. She cursed under her breath, while knocking impatiently at the door.

"There's still something I don't get."

Sakura's arm hung in mid-air. Sasuke's voice had been even, as nonchalant as ever. But the thing that struck her was that he was still interested.

"What is it?"

She heard the Chuunin fumbling with the keys outside. She turned to face the raven-haired, who had stood up too.

"How come I've never heard of it?" he asked as the door behind her opened, creaking tiredly in the process.

"The Nidaime's seal wasn't really used, for before it was really spread, the Third Great Ninja War broke in, and the villagers were faced with the only truth that could keep them alive: united we stand, helped by our Will of Fire. Divided, Konoha would have turned to dust long ago."

True. All of it was true. Except she hadn't been the one to answer Sasuke, whose face had turned dark, in his eyes a threatening glower.

Sakura swiftly volte-faced only to come across a recent acquaintance. And not the most pleasant of them.

"You're…Ashura."

_The asshole who called me "little bitch" as he attacked me yesterday, before being stopped by shishou._

The Jounin arched a brow.

"It's Ashura-_san_ for you, little girl. Glad to see you're as disrespectful as ever," he said patronizingly.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, ignoring his last comment.

"What do you think I'm doing?" he retorted, clinging his keys in front of her. "I'm on guard duty. So, fully enjoyed your first night together as a married couple?" he added mockingly, eyes taunting.

Sakura felt blood rush to her cheeks at alarming speed. What _the fuck_ did he insinuate just now? The words collided incoherently in her mind, refusing to form an acceptable sentence.

"This has nothing to do with you," she heard Sasuke growl menacingly.

"Oooh, somebody seems to be not very pleased with my presence," Ashura said, smirking. "Don't worry, boy. Feeling's reciprocated."

"A Senior Jounin, on guard duty? What does the council think of us?" Sakura asked, narrowing her eyes.

Ashura shifted uneasily, but he ignored her question. Instead, he gazed intently at her, his face unreadable.

"The truth is, little girl, I'm kind of worried about you."

"Don't make me laugh. You showed enough worry yesterday," Sasuke retorted, and his voice sounded nearer, as though he had approached her carefully.

Sakura noted that he was next to her. She remembered that when Ashura attacked, she had prevented Sasuke, who was behind her, from doing anything silly. She couldn't help but wonder if it was to avoid being stopped another time that he opted for her right side this time. But what had he been up to? Was it one of his stupid protective urges?

Sakura shrugged that thought off. This wasn't the time for that kind of thinking.

"Mind your words, kid. Nidaime's seal or whatever, you're still a fucking traitor who can't be trusted. If it hadn't been for the Hokage's pupil, I would have been the one to chop your head off. And remorselessly."

Before Sasuke could answer back, he had turned to Sakura, oblivious to the dark-looking boy.

"I know why you're saving this asshole's worthless life," he told her in a very serious tone, but devoid of malice.

"No kidding," Sakura sneered, but she was confused.

"Your efforts are noble, but that won't bring him back," he carried on.

That one took her by surprise. What the hell? It's not like she wanted to resurrect anyone. Godammit, she wasn't a _little girl_ anymore. She knew what death was.

_Just stop pouring your frigging pity on me already._

"This is not up to you to decide," she snapped, blood beating nervously at her ears.

Ashura stayed calm, which surprised her. She would have preferred if he had snapped back, if he had tried to attack her even. That quiet air of stern understanding was unsettling. She knew his experience gave him vision, showed her deepest thoughts to him. She knew _he knew_. And that was pissing her off the most.

"It may be so, but…"

"Then mind your own business. You don't know anything about me."

Ashura frowned, increasing the creases on his forehead.

"You're Haruno-well _Uchiha_ as-of-now," he corrected bitterly. "You're Uchiha Sakura, eighteen years old, medic nin, one of the most talented, may I add. Some even say you're on a steady way to surpass your master. And this bastard, who has already ruined a lot, could mess up that."

Sasuke grumbled, but Sakura didn't pay any attention to him. She was trying to figure out where the trap laid. That guy, who was bent on shutting her up just hours ago, now complimented her? What was he getting at?

"Listen," she began hesitantly, her eyes not leaving his hazel ones.

"No, you listen. Aside from my family, this village is the dearest thing to me. I believe in it, in the Will of Fire, in what the Hokages taught us. I believe in the new generation. And it pains me to see you abandon a brilliant future for a lost cause. Think about it: you're going to become a pariah's wife. And there's no escaping that marriage. This won't be without consequences," he added warningly, but in a somewhat paternal way.

Sakura was voiceless. That man was actually concerned. Years of experience, of witnessing horrid deaths, of losing precious people gave his eyes a painfully tired expression. Somehow…Somehow, Ashura-san was trying to remind her what forever really meant. For her.

She heard a little voice inside her, a frail soundless voice that she had crushed without a second thought and swiftly, trying to make its way to her mind. It was tempting and sad.

"His execution would free you," the Jounin said bluntly, yet with kind of a twisted gentleness.

Sakura was reminded that the pariah was still there when he shifted awkwardly. He was still standing by her side, as silent and impassive as ever, but his stance was stiff, and his eyes absent.

Ashura had discussed his death as a minor event, as though talking about some stepping stone that would be a little annoying to reach, but would be necessary to her future. That had been wrong. Regardless of what Sasuke had done, it was downright wrong. Sakura firmly shook her head.

"I've chosen this path," she declared with fiery determination. "No one pushed me to it. Only I will bear the consequences of this choice, which is only right, since I have no intention of going back on my word, Ashura-san."

_I know damn well what 'forever' means._

She waited for him to show his disappointment. To tell her she would regret such a reckless choice.

He merely smiled.

"You do know how to show respect after all," he mused.

And he cleared the way. Before she left the cell, she cast one last look at Sasuke.

"I'm coming back," she told him, giving in to some unknown impulse, not really knowing what she meant by that.

Sasuke nodded, his sharp eyes alive once again.

_We're both into this. That's how I see 'forever'. _

_

* * *

_

**Author's most humble atonement:** I'm sorry. I'm really, really, very sorry for the very late update. Even when I was trying to enjoy vacation, there was this nagging guilt that wouldn't leave me alone until I've finally written this damn chapter. And your reviews that told to update ASAP…Please leave some, even for this stupidly lazy author. If you don't get something in Sakura's explanation, PM me. I'll respond ASAP (for real). Sorry for the pace in this chapter, but don't worry, the next one will have more action.

See you (and don't forget to review, pretty please (big puppy eyes)).


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note:** Frantic college sophomore start is frantic. This means less updates and long waits. I was never a regular working person, so yeah, sorry about that. But I won't drop this fic, so, no matter how long the wait, you'll still get to have the end of this story. It will, however, take a long amount of time.

On a side-note: if the last chapter's POV transitions are too abrupt, blame it on FF. In my Word document, there are these nice lines separating POVs. I tried everything, re-uploaded the chapter many times, changed transitions, nothing worked. FF wants you to have difficulties reading me. I really hope this chapter doesn't get the same treatment.

**Disclaimer:** I only own the plot, my laptop and my sleep-deprived, slow brain. Everything else hereby is Kishimoto's.

* * *

**Chapter 7:** Never be the same

Sakura winced as noon's sunlight blinded her eyes. Not only did the fresh air chase out the remains of the cold fear that had painfully shrunk her lungs, but it also seemed to renew her confidence, which had cruelly suffered for the past hours spent in that awfully distress-filled cell. The pink-haired kunoichi firmly decided: she wouldn't go back in that cell, unless for getting Sasuke out of it. That's when she got it. She was still at the entrance of the Konoha's interrogation and security buildings, so she was fairly near him. A warm, shy, contorted feeling rushed over her. It was relief.

The sensation of someone else's feelings embracing her heart was still confusing and overwhelming. And she wasn't even sure about the nature of those feelings, since she just got only impressions. She wondered whether the raven-haired young man's relief had anything to do with her leaving, a thought that somewhat bothered her. Then she remembered his lone, dark figure turning slowly to the window as she left his cell, only minutes after Ashura-san had casually discussed his death as if Sasuke hadn't been there. No, she corrected herself, it was more as if the hazel-eyed Jounin was _strongly-firmly-openly_ rejecting Sasuke's very existence, strongly refusing the idea that the prisoner was breathing Konoha's air, sustaining life from what he intended to destroy, what he _nearly-nearly-nearly_ destroyed. And, frankly…

_Who could blame him for that?_

It took Sakura a while to realize that she had been absent-mindedly gazing at the entrance of the old but ominous-looking building. She mentally slapped herself. She couldn't afford to lose precious seconds in idle observation and dark brooding. In a fleet moment, her mind classified the tasks she had to do. What she judged most urgent was to check on the hospital. She instinctively knew that the Godaime would be there, waiting for her in Sakura's office. Her master wasn't for effusions and emotional display, but she had her ways of showing her deep care for her pupil. And Sakura desperately needed guidance at that moment. She had a re-trial to face, where she would oppose shaken, thus more spiteful counselors, and distant, perhaps hostile Jounins. She wasn't sure about how to handle that, or if she was capable of that at all.

Sakura shook her head and, with a quick, graceful leap, she swiftly landed on the lowest branch of the tree nearby, before she began to jump through the trees, faintly aware of the dark whispers that came from the leaves, only to be swallowed by the cool breeze.

The young kunoichi had nearly reached the village's center when the branches of the tree she had just landed on shot forward and tied her up. Her first, stupid reflex was to try to fight it off, but her brain promptly processed what had just happened, and her whole body relaxed, although she was peeved by the rudeness of a certain someone.

"Can't you try and talk to me using normal methods, taichou? I'm kind of getting tired of you assaulting me as unceremoniously as this," she said, while rolling her eyes.

The branches slowly retreated and the shape of a man was gradually sculpted in the trunk of the tree, before definitely coming out as an Anbu with tired brown eyes. Yamato was chuckling.

"I'm sorry, but you were moving incredibly fast, so I had to stop you somewhat brusquely." The light smile disappeared as if chased by the dancing shadows of the leaves, his face darkened dreadfully. "There's something you need to know."

"What is it?" Sakura warily asked, realizing part of her didn't want to hear the answer.

"You're still being watched," Yamato replied somberly, features hard and stiff as though shaped out of wood.

Sakura couldn't help but sigh in relief, even though her body was still stiff in apprehension.

"That's it? Well, those old geezers never know when to stop, do they?" she said calmly, an arrogant edge in her voice.

"Sakura, you don't get it," Yamato retorted sternly. "You're still being watched, _even though the council knows you'll be at the re-trial."_

There. The apprehension was back again, and it was oiling the mechanisms of her brain. Sakura heard her heartbeat resounding painfully in her ears.

"I don't understand. Do you mean…whoever is stalking me isn't under the council's orders?" she inquired with a toneless voice. "Wait, how do you know someone's tracking me?"

Her eyes cautiously scanned his. He seemed to hesitate for a while, then he carefully, vigilantly inspected their surroundings. That secret-looking behavior of his alerted Sakura, who unconsciously began whispering.

"Is this top secret Intel?" she hushed, voice strained.

Yamato made a weird non-committing gesture, halfway between shrugging and nodding.

"It's not _really_ top secret. In fact, it's more of an unofficial task I've been asked to carry out," he explained in a low voice. "You remember the explanation I gave you last time you questioned the matter of you being trailed?"

She nodded vigorously, partly to encourage him to pursue his clarification quickly, partly in a vain attempt to chase the sound of her blood pounding strongly, messily at her ears. Now that he mentioned it, she recalled a curt, evasive answer.

"_Fellow Anbu. Trustworthy." _

It wasn't until now, that her mind was refreshed and unclouded by raw panic, that she realized how fishy it had been. She dangerously narrowed her eyes. Her taichou's voice and face were apparently calm, but his arms were stiff, and he was cracking his finger's articulations in a nervous way.

"I lied." He was avoiding her stare.

_No kidding._

Sakura sighed.

"I figured as much."

"You know that the remains of the Root pledged allegiance to Hokage-sama, and joined the rest of the Anbu."

Yamato wasn't asking her, he was fully aware that she already knew that fact.

"Tsunade-sama accepted every one of them, but she wasn't fully convinced of their loyalty. So she had me insert some of my seeds in their meals," Yamato murmured so fast it took Sakura a moment to register what he was actually saying.

"_Excuse me?_" she replied louder than she intended, gaining an alarmed look from the Anbu. "Sorry," she carried on in a soft voice, "what did you mean by 'seeds'?"

Yamato's brows furrowed in a perplexed, almost disappointed manner. That didn't exactly ease the throbbing ringing at her ears. In fact, the blood rushed more forcefully in her temples, fuelled this time by annoyance.

_How on earth can I know what you feeding Anbu seeds means, aside from a freakishly stupid vegetarian impulse? _

"I thought you would remember," he whispered, in a nearly reproachful manner. "That's what I used the last time we had to track Sai all over to Orochimaru's lair."

Sakura had to force herself not to slap herself. And hard.

How could she have forgotten about Yamato's special seeds, which allowed him to track anyone ingurgitated them?

"Sorry," she apologized, fingers playing with her kunai pouch.

Embarrassment crept up on her cheeks, but that was only before the truth sank.

_Hold on. _

"Tsunade-sama," she deeply inhaled, wishing that sharp intake of eucalyptus-tasting oxygen would clear the mist of disbelief clouding her mind, "actually asked you to stalk fellow Anbu?"

"I'm not _stalking_ them; I'm preventing any suspicious move that would threaten our highly-paid peace," her former captain rectified, and she felt a scolding edge in his professional jargon.

"By **stalking** them," she insisted stubbornly.

"For Kami's sake, Sakura," he had spelled each syllable with barely contained exasperation. "I'm not_ even_ following them."

"You know where they are at every moment of the day, correct?" she asked, her voice harsh and demanding. He nodded. "You can actually do it to more than one person?" she added disbelievingly.

_Obviously_, an inner voice replied scornfully, but she ignored it. At least, she tried.

He curtly nodded with a vivacious, sharp head movement, irritation now clearly plastered on his wood-sculpted-like face. She felt something close to anger bubble up inside her, before swelling dangerously, reaching for her mind.

"This is wrong," she asserted, her tone peremptory.

"I knew it," Yamato sighed, his vexation turning to lassitude. "You don't understand."

That scalding feeling that threatened to explode in dark sparkles of ire **was** anger. It was blistering because it was born from incredulous disillusionment. She didn't know what enraged her most: Tsunade-sama ordering Yamato to spy on his comrades, or him reprimanding her for condemning it.

"Excuse me for thinking that breaking people's privacy is utterly **wrong**," she retorted vehemently.

"And is trying to save a murderer any better, Sakura?" he answered back in a low, sharp, exceeded voice, giving in to anger for the first time since they have first met.

Sakura took a step back and almost fell from the tree in the process. Yamato pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What?" she murmured disbelievingly, her voice obeying her at long last after she had thought it swallowed by the malicious leaves' shades.

Yamato sighed. When he opened his eyes again, they were _hard-dull-devoid_. Those were the clouded, stone-like eyes of an Anbu. _Stealthy-grim-efficient_-**shinobi**.

His words echoed eerily in her ears.

"Do you want him dead, like the others?" she asked, her mouth dry, forcing herself to hold his scrutinizing, deep gaze.

"I didn't say that," he sighed.

She hated the look he was giving her. It wasn't exactly patronizing, but it did make her feel _desperate-helpless-__**infuriated**_. She felt sheer, red, rampaging rage churn her insides. Shit. _**Shit**_. She knew that look all too much, for she had seen it countless times, in another pair of eyes, pupils made of the dullest grey she'd ever met. Sakura shook her head, trying to chase those clearly unneeded dark thoughts, which were only fuelling her anger.

"Then what did you _mean_?" she snapped, conscious of the utter rudeness of her tone. About which she didn't give a damn right at the moment.

"I mean that you should act like the grown-up I know you are," he retaliated, a deep crease digging at his forehead, sounding _stern-scolding-aggravated_. "We're not dealing with pompous words like 'good', 'evil', 'right' or 'wrong'. You're striving to save Sasuke because of more complex reasons than the plain old Manichean vision of the world, and Tsunade-sama does what she deems fit and necessary for the village's safety. I do what she orders me to because I have faith in her judgment, and not in fake pillars of morals. You disapproving this is hypocritical and childish. So spare me the whole 'this-is-wrong' ordeal, for you're not twelve anymore."

All of the ire that had set her mind and heart on fire seemed to decrease gradually as he spoke steadily, in that serious, grim tone that only meant the truth, until it dwindled and faded away, leaving a miserably empty feeling inside of her. She had always marveled at how, when spoken, the truth lost its _beautiful-shining-appealing_ appearance to become the ugly voice she knew was inside of her all along.

"Especially when I'm informing you to protect you from nasty surprises," he continued in a softer, fatherly tone.

Even though she avoided meeting his brown eyes, she could feel his scrutinizing gaze on her. She awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other, intently absorbed by the sour contemplation of falling leaves. Her hand had been playing with her kunai pouch all this time without her noticing it. Which added frustration to the hollow guilt that had shrunk her insides.

"Sorry, taichou, I didn't mean to sound…"

She bit her lower lip, hesitating on the choice of wording.

"Rude? Ungrateful? Childish? All three of the aforementioned?" he suggested with fake innocence, a small smile tugging his thin lips in a knowing, but very annoying manner.

He was clearly messing with her. Before she had the opportunity to take back her apology, since he didn't seem to appreciate the effort, the deep crease returned to his forehead and his face grew worried once again.

"Be careful," he curtly, yet wisely advised.

"Is it the same person as last time?" Sakura asked, trying hard to remember the face of the potential threat, but only achieving a faint image of blond hair and hard, grim blue eyes.

"I don't know." Yamato's voice sounded regretful. "I know one of them is in the area, but I can't tell you which one. It could be Fuu. It could be an accomplice of his, or just a freelancer."

"But you knew," she voiced, sounding accusing when she didn't wish to, her growing nervousness not blurring her mind this time. "That time, you knew exactly who was trailing me."

"And that was because I had an intentional run-in with him to make sure," Yamato answered, exasperated. "I can't take that risk right now. If it's Fuu again, my tracking mission would be endangered. I hope you understand that at least," he added gruffly, his eyes as tired as ever.

She felt heat radiating from her cheeks. All the rage that had so suddenly dissipated just a while ago flared again in that fleet instant, making her heartbeat echo grimly inside her, but not entirely directed at her former squad captain. Some of it awakened that latent, pernicious, guilty side of her that drowned her in her insecurities.

"I know what a shinobi's duty is," she replied in a higher tone than she expected, her eyes intently gazing at the branch below her, brown mixing with green while those leaves still insisted on falling and falling, falling no matter what happened, no matter who witnessed or not.

Her left hand was clutching her kunai pouch so hard it threatened to rip and spill its deadly content twirling nonchalantly with those sad, unnoticed leaves. She wouldn't meet his gaze. No, she wouldn't. If she did, and his face mirrored the disappointment and frustration in his voice, she wouldn't be able to take it, and she would flee like the useless, pathetic coward she was. She felt some moisture well up in her eyes. Probably because of those heart-wrenching leaves… She tried blinking it away, her gaze then straying to Yamato's battered feet, which stayed immobile for a while before slowly drawing near to her, in an assured, slow pace. Sakura unconsciously tensed when she felt his tall silhouette towering over her, confused and not really knowing what he was about to do. Thus getting taken aback when she felt a warm hand on top of her head, in a paternal, approving way.

"I know you do," he murmured softly, his gesture conveying much more gentleness than he let in his words.

For a moment, Sakura thought she just might falter right there, letting much more moisture well in her eyes. But a last reflex saved her at the very last moment. Moisture wasn't allowed. Moisture was weakness. And tears were unthinkable at this point. She had fallen once, because of Sasuke yet again (that _selfish-disgusting-broken_-**bastard**). She wouldn't recidivate in a short amount of time. She forbad herself from looking into her taichou's deep, frank, honest eyes, allowing her head to just nod in a non-committing way. A barely audible sigh escaped Yamato's lips.

"Be careful," he reiterated yet again. "Don't do anything harsh and just stay put. Something unexpected might just befall you."

Sakura's head unwillingly shot up but Yamato had already disappeared in the tree trunk. That last line…Not only was it ambiguous, but she had almost felt him smile as he was saying it. Just as she gazed intently at the tree trunk, perplexed, Yamato's head popped out of it making her start.

"Almost forgot. Tsunade-sama is waiting for you in your office. You'd better hurry up," he advised in that warm voice of his, a secretive smile adorning his lips, before merging once again with the trunk.

"I know," Sakura half-voiced, not really sure if she was talking to Yamato, herself, or the fallen leaves.

* * *

Awkward silence filled the room as she stood there, motionless and stiff, in front of the Hokage who was seated in her chair, impassive and expressionless if not for her falcon eyes faintly gleaming, nose rested on her interlaced fingers.

"So you're now married to the infamous Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade stated in a non-committing tone.

"Yes," Sakura answered after a moment of hesitation, failing to hide apprehension from her voice and hating herself for that.

Her office seemed eerily dim with its curtains drawn, blocking away the reviving light if not for the stray sunrays that somehow managed their way in, only to die wistfully on her desk, like stubborn, forgotten wishes…Sakura forced herself to empty her mind from these useless thoughts. Silent-falling leaves and trite, wish-looking light wouldn't help her carry out her task. The Hokage was looking at her without actually seeing her, eyes still shimmering lightly, and Sakura didn't want to be the one to tear her away from her brooding. She used that fleet interlude made of wisps of agonizing sunrays and weary silence to scrutinize her master's face. So Tsunade-sama didn't trust the Root. And said Root wasn't pleased with Sakura trying to get their chief's murderer out of jail and _alive_ (Somehow. Kind of. No shinobi could really be alive anyway). Someone was trailing her, for unknown purpose. Yamato was stalking his comrades. The elders could have the Root serve their own goals. But the leaves would still fall and the sunrays would still die and wishes would still be _stifled-shushed-betrayed_. How can everything be the same, while nothing would ever be?

_Ninja_, Sakura mused, _are living contradictions._

"I have some news for you, though I can't tell if it's good or bad," Tsunade declared, a light frown marring her stern features.

Sakura sighed, a scarcely audible sigh. She felt like she hadn't heard good news in ages. The crease on her master's forehead turns from confused to strict, but Tsunade made no comment whatsoever.

"The counselors are dropping the re-trial idea," Tsunade said after a long while, as if searching for the right way to put it.

It takes Sakura's blood only a second to buzz through her ears again, panic and rage interlacing and taking her mind in an empty, daunting embrace.

_Those fucking old geezers…_

The pink-haired girl didn't believe, didn't _want_ to believe that her plan actually failed. She opened her mouth to say something far from intelligent when Tsunade swiftly added:

"They are still dropping the execution."

Taken aback, Sakura found herself saying something yet so clever.

"_Huh?_"

Realizing she had just 'huh'ed the Godaime Hokage, Sakura flushed, bit her lip and quickly came up with a more structured answered. Kind of.

"I mean, I don't understand," she stammered awkwardly, embarrassed and feeling that even the roots of her hair were on fire.

She couldn't really see Tsunade's face, for it was half-hidden behind her hands, but the elderly woman's eyes gleamed in an amused way.

"My guess would be that they would like to avoid being directly linked to the Uchiha massacre in front of the Jounin," Tsunade stated, her brows furrowing once more. "A re-trial would make them in a brittle, delicate position. The Jounin may not have paid care to anything Uchiha Sasuke would have said in his defense, but some of them would listen to what you have to say. And you could induce doubt in the form of power the council likes to use the most against me. In other words, you're an unexpected factor, one that can lead to unexpected consequences. They have tasted the bitterness of the fact when you came up with the Nidaime's seal, something that is far too sacred to sacrifice for their own conceit satisfaction, and they are now afraid of any situation getting out of control again."

It took Sakura some time to let the whole situation sink in. In the meanwhile, Tsunade rested her chin on her intertwined hands, studying her student with her sharp amber eyes. Sakura was confused, to say the least. The anxiety and anger for just a moment ago was still lingering in her insides when she got the other half of the news, too late to stop the wave of raw feelings to get to her mind and too early to revel in the timid relief that was struggling to get her shrunken insides back to normal. She tried to ignore whatever inner turmoil may be raging inside her, trying to listen to what the rational part of her had to say. So, to sum it all up, the geezers didn't want to look bad in front of the Senior Jounin, and that's why they have cancelled the re-trial.

_Wait. Wait a damn minute here._

Had Tsunade-sama just technically said that the council was _afraid_ of her? That didn't make any _damn_ sense. No, she stopped herself. It actually did. She had pulled something ancient and secret and sacred and respect and shoved it to their old, wrinkled, ravaged, bilious faces. She had expected an impact on them. She shot a nervous glance at Tsunade who was still gazing at her with hawk eyes. Was the Godaime waiting for a conceited, satisfied, relieved reaction? She wouldn't get that. Sakura was _unnerved_. Causing any uneasiness to the council was like poking at the eye of a sleeping tiger. An old, weary, heinous, moth-full tiger, but a tiger all the same. It wasn't serious while they paid no _real_ attention to her, but she had now attracted theirs to herself. And _that_ was surely **not** good news.

"At least am I relieved that you understand the situation," Tsunade confides in a secretive tone, one she rarely uses.

"How are they going to break it off to the Jounin?" Sakura more wondered aloud than actually asked.

"They are going to pull off something like 'We, as elders, believe in our young generation. He is the last remains of one of our greatest clans, and we now have the means for its resurrection in hand. We must cherish the powers that made Konoha great and feared', Tsunade mused, her face turning into a mask of repulsion.

All of Sakura's blood seemed to have been pumped to her ears, where she could hear it run and beat and thirst for ire. Far from being satisfied with getting away with their horrendous deeds, those _lowlifes_ also wanted to look wise and forgiving after doing the unforgivable. Her ears would soon come off from being too frequently exposed to high blood pressure, she mused somberly. Her rising anger was suddenly swept away by internal fatigue, and she was forced to repress a sigh. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, pinching the bridge of her nose, and she found herself bitterly regretting not being thirteen anymore, when the world was still more of a black and white scenery, and everything was so clear and categorical in her still fairly innocent mind. Her eyes fell almost unconsciously on Tsunade-sama's scrutinizing pupils, and she noticed that, even though her deep respect for her master hadn't faltered, her mouth tasted sour whenever she remembered the whole Yamato ordeal. That's when she realized that maybe, just maybe, Yamato had been overestimating her: she was still clinging on a sugar-coated vision of the people she was most looking up to.

"Why are you helping me?" she blurted out, not realizing that she had voiced her inner thoughts out loud until it was too late.

_Kami, if you're out there…_

Every muscle in Sakura's body tensed up as she waited for the storm to darkly brew and abruptly explode over her head. She had sounded almost…(she painfully swallowed, dread turning her throat sore) **ungrateful**. She averted her eyes, not willing to see that frightening aura of anger surround her master. Seconds stretched in an excruciating manner in the deaf silence of the room. What Sakura then heard from Tsunade wasn't the loud outburst she expected. She was taken aback when she caught a barely audible sigh.

"I guess I'm getting senile," Tsunade said in a soft voice, sounding old for the first time since Sakura became her apprentice which astounded the pink-haired kunoichi.

Tsunade was sadly smiling, absently gazing at some fictional point in mid-air, straight ahead of her, and, somehow, Sakura felt she hadn't been the only one to think out loud. Relief washed over her, bizarrely intertwining with shards of confusion and uneasiness, melting away her stiffness. Sakura's world wasn't black and white anymore, she mused, but maybe, just maybe, the shades of grey caught in between were more _vulnerable-close-human_. Tsunade seemed to have descended from her Hokage's pedestal for this mere lost, secret moment, and Sakura almost got ashamed at herself for wishing, even for just a second, to return to that naïve vision that only existed for non-shinobi. With another sigh, Tsunade abruptly ended that brittle moment, her strong, far-away Hokage façade on, but her falcon eyes still faintly displayed scraps of time and shards of aging hope. When she spoke again, her voice had regained its professional sharpness.

"Uchiha Sasuke will still get a punishment," Tsunade asserted, stern. "I suppose they are discussing the final sentence right now."

"Right now?"

_Something unexpected might befall you…_

Comprehension dawned on her mind as the evidence of Yamato's cryptic words struck. Her taichou had been hinting at the elders giving up on executing Sasuke. Tsunade nodded, cheek rested comfortably on the palm of her hand, eyes straying from Sakura's desk to a certain mug-like bizarre yellow thing, on which they lingered. Her eyes seemed to cloud for a brittle second, but the moment was too quickly found and lost for Sakura to be sure, Sakura whose heart was now beating somewhere in her stomach. She shook off the feeling of suffocation that had perniciously crept up on her heart. At least she tried to. She had to refocus. _Execution-cancelled-punishment-discussed_. Sakura opened her mouth, but she was only able to make strange, muffled sounds, for her throat had just gone sore for some obscure reason. It was fortunately enough to get Tsunade's attention again.

"Yes, right now," the Hokage answered as though there had been no painful pause. "Verdict should be rendered to both of you today."

"Both of us," Sakura repeated in a soft voice. This 'us' sounded…weird.

"It's only normal, seeing that you _are_ an Uchiha," Tsunade said, an amused smile adorning her lips, which transformed to a light chuckle when Sakura involuntarily cringed. "You'll have to get used to it, you know. A lifetime of Uchihaness awaits you. Word is already getting out that you're now Sasuke's **wife**," Tsunade added, eyes gleaming mischievously, visibly savoring Sakura's second instinctive cringe as she willingly stressed on her last word.

_Wait…What. The. Fuck. _

"What do you mean, 'word is already getting out'?" Sakura inquired so fast she nearly choked on her own spit.

"I mean what I say," Tsunade stated flatly, arching a brow. "There seems to have been some leak, and some people now know that you're now Mrs. Uchiha, without knowing the details behind the fact, though."

"But…" This time, Sakura _did_ choke on her spit, from indignation or confusion, she didn't know, and didn't care about when she tried, and partially failed, to stifle the coughing fit that ensued. "But it only happened at _dawn_," Sakura objected with a very hoarse voice.

"A lot of shinobi are up and perfectly awake at dawn, and some Chuunin on guard duty would gladly gossi-err-transmit latest news just to shake off their boredom," Tsunade replied tranquilly. Her face grew mildly concerned. "Sakura, have you seen your parents yet?"

_Ouch._

Sakura's insides churned, felt like lead and weighed mountains on her legs. No, she hadn't seen her parents yet. She had _completely_ forgotten about her parents, too busy with getting rid of that Damocles' sword ready to fall straight on Sasuke's head. It had been all too frantic, everything happened in a confused blur of panic and powerlessness and sheer willpower and she didn't get a halt to stop and think about her family. Dull grey eyes flashed threateningly in her mind, and Sakura suddenly felt empty. She felt an intense gaze seeing right through her silence, but she still felt the need to shake her head as a silent answer. Tsunade pursed her lips disapprovingly.

"You ought to," Tsunade demanded. "As soon as possible. Leaks and idle brains breed exaggerated rumors that tend to travel fast. Some can get to your parents' ears, which is by no means a pleasurable experience. Especially if the 'married-to-the-Uchiha' part is true."

Sakura nodded warily, to which Tsunade's eyes flashed threateningly.

"Sakura," Tsunade growled warningly.

"I will," she answered way too fast.

The Godaime didn't insist, but her brows were tightly knit over her scolding amber eyes.

"How are your chakra reserves?" Tsunade inquired, piercing falcon pupils scrutinizing the young kunoichi.

Sakura shifted uncomfortably.

_What does she mean?_

"Good, I guess," she answered, unconsciously hanging her head down and examining her fingers.

Blood was still staining her right thumb, silent memento of a night of fire and cold. Sakura felt the sudden, impatient urge to scrub that thumb clean, clear of any evidence regarding last night and it took her master's harsh, peremptory voice to control that surprisingly powerful impulse.

"_Good_, you _guess_? Are you mocking me, Sakura?" Tsunade growled in a very dangerous voice, one that reminded Sakura of a lioness preparing to leap on its territory's offender.

The Hokage's eyes had narrowed to slits of yellow thunder, and Sakura suddenly had trouble swallowing. Maybe eluding the question had been a bad move, after all.

"Certainly not," Sakura answered way faster than she intended, her voice an octave higher than normal.

For a moment, Tsunade seemed torn between keeping an outraged face and bursting into laughter, which had her make one of the weirdest faces Sakura's ever witnessed, with her jaw hard and contracted but eyebrows arched and wavering. Finally, the elderly woman chose to interlace her fingers in front of her face (most likely to hide the amused smile Sakura could guess was plastered on her lips for it had her eyes twinkle).

"Then do not give me half-assed answers," Tsunade demanded but her tone had lost its harshness.

Sakura warily nodded. Geez, having a conversation with the Hokage could really be exhausting, since, as her apprentice, she knew just how terribly **frightening** the woman could get.

"They are not regenerating as fast as they would normally do. Even now, when I've had some rest, my reserves are terribly low," Sakura explained, knitting her brows. She wasn't surprised when Tsunade let out a small, knowing sigh.

"It's nothing unexpected," Tsunade declared. "The ritual takes its fair share of energy to complete. Sealing someone is already consuming enough, and being sealed somewhat derails the whole chakra system, so regenerating _should_ take longer. It's nothing unexpected, but it's nothing _convenient_," Tsunade added, peering at her pupil, ageless worry written in her eyes.

Sakura shifted again.

"Is your kunai pouch at the ready?"

This time, Tsunade's voice sounded soft and protective, almost maternal, taking Sakura aback. The elder woman's eyes had strayed again to a certain yellow horror on which Sakura's eyes would definitely not fall (_definitely-clearly-at-all-costs_), and the young girl felt opposite feelings swell and shrink and bubble ragingly inside her. If this kept up all week long, she would die young, she darkly mused.

"Yes, shishou," she answered in a faraway voice that surprised her.

"Maybe you should have someone escort you," Tsunade mused softly. "Maybe Shizune could, or one of the Rookie Nine…"

"Shishou."

Sakura's voice had been firm and unwavering. No, she wouldn't involve anyone else in this matter. With the Root and the council being involved, things could get pretty nasty. And Sakura just couldn't afford letting anyone of her friends getting hurt on her behalf. She knew Tsunade couldn't order anyone to protect her for numerous reasons, the most basic being that she would be exploiting vital human resources that could go on more important and money-earning missions for, what exactly? Shielding an eighteen-year-old against her own village? That was laughable. And Shizune surely had her hands full, since she had to do both Sakura's and her own work these days. But there was more…

Tsunade's eyes finally tore away from what she was staring at so intently and rested over her apprentice, looking right through her. Silence conveyed unspoken words and eloquent glances, and _don't-you-die-on-me-too_. Sakura reverently bowed, throat sore and aching but her mind more lucid and categorical than ever. There was more, definitely more.

"Thank you, shishou."

It was _her_ battle. She had more than her life on the line; she had her _pride_ as a full-fledged shinobi. She had been the one declaring this fight on the council, she wasn't going to cower now behind her master, or anyone. The consequences rested with her and her alone. She knew Tsunade understood that, perhaps mocking her naivety, but still she understood. For she knew the Godaime would have done the same if given the same situation.

"I may have taught you too much," Tsunade said, melancholic amusement tugging her lips upward.

_And I am grateful you did so, shishou, _Sakura thought, and may have said if it weren't for the loud, rash knock on the door.

* * *

Sasuke rapidly turned to face whoever (_Sakura?_) had entered.

"Missed me much?" Ashura (oh yes, he would remember this one's name easily) sneered, nonchalantly leaning on the door, clearing the path for another slightly more slender silhouette to enter. The crow-masked Anbu silently stared at him for a while, his dark figure casting an ethereal shadow at the wall, blonde locks recklessly escaping the mask and falling over his stiffened shoulders.

Sasuke didn't like the Anbu. Their expressionless, blank masks had accompanied his first year after the massacre (the Sandaime had surely been worrying about **inside attacks**, Sasuke now realized, but still) and Itachi's firm, flawless stance in his Anbu uniform had haunted his dreams. No, Sasuke did **not** like the Anbu. At all.

"I have a message for you from the elders and Senior Jounins' council."

The voice had been harsh, cold, as high-pitched as a man's voice could get. The man had stayed terribly still, to the extent Sasuke wondered if he was breathing since his ribcage showed no sign of ever moving. That was what he hated most about the Anbu: they were completely unreadable. He had been trained since childhood to read his enemy's thoughts, schemes and strategies through their body language and facial expressions, but that was almost impossible when it came to the Anbu.

"There will be no re-trial."

It took him a while to register the information. The Anbu stayed silent, not deigning to clarify the situation. Was he studying Sasuke's reaction? Just beneath the thin, misty layer of confusion surrounding his heart, something darker and _terribly-terribly-terribly_ cold began stirring inside him.

"I don't understand," Sasuke replied through gritted teeth.

"In a gesture of utmost kindness that proves their faith in Konoha's young generation, the council has decided to exonerate you. The last Sharingan user won't be executed."

As the detached words slowly sank in, Sasuke felt the lid sealing the _something_ within him, the same lid Sakura breached only hours ago when she had pushed him to the edge, slowly crack open and dark, cold anger slowly seep from it.

"The last Sharingan user, huh? So they can't afford to lose this doujutsu, even if it's a traitor's, right, Anbu-san," Sasuke sneered.

"Why you, little prick…" Ashura began indignantly, but his voice seemed to suddenly be swallowed by the rapacious leap of the Anbu.

It was all over in seconds. Sasuke had been anticipating the attack; he had noticed the sudden stiffness of muscles that are about to lash out and _kick-push-hurt-kill_. He hadn't expected the velocity of the assault, however. He had just enough time to guard his throat from the powerful kick aimed at it, so powerful that it sent him crashing against the wall in a terrible, bone-wrenching impact. His breath was caught up in his lungs in the most painful manner, and it wasn't long before his right arm began dully hurting. And yet…And yet…The Anbu was talking, faceless voice made of frustration and barely contained anger, but Sasuke couldn't bring himself to focus. A single thought kept running in mad circles of chaos in his mind: _That kick could have killed me_. The opening of the sinister lid within was halfway through and he realized that it hadn't been anger that had trickled from it. It had been, it _was_ hatred. Somber, cold hatred, that had been sealed away by the despair of the loss when Naruto died and which was making its way slowly, softly, perniciously to his heart.

"…You are scum that doesn't even deserve the life Konoha's giving you…" the high-pitched voice was murmuring very fast, the word colliding dimly in the tense atmosphere.

"Oi, I know he's a disrespecting bastard, but that just now could have killed him!" Ashura said, failing miserably at getting the infuriated Anbu to cool off.

They wanted his Sharingan. His family's Sharingan. His clan's Sharingan. The clan _they_ had executed in the first place. That's why they were keeping him alive? Screw them. Screw this village, undeserving of Naruto's naïve sacrifice. Screw this shadow of a man, hiding all the patronizing glares cowardly behind a crow mask (Itachi liked crows a lot. Sasuke never knew why. Never had the opportunity to ask him properly). Screw this so-called forgiveness. If it was all about his eyes, then he'd rather blind himself and die cursed by all of them. Before he knew it, a soft, mocking, condescending chuckle escaped his lips. The other two fell silent, Ashura completely taken aback, eyeing Sasuke warily as if he was worrying for his mental sanity. The chuckle turned to a fit of uncontrollable, grim, glacial laughter. It had been very long since the last time hatred had freely run into his veins, and the sensation was addicting. Why was his mind reprimanding him from behind the thick mist of confusing darkness enveloping it? He was going to show them just how **much **he abhorred _them-the-village-everything_.

"Did he hit his head or something?" he heard Ashura wonder worriedly.

"He's mocking us. I shall put that insolent voice to silence then," the Anbu stated coldly.

"Can't wait for you to try it," Sasuke retaliated, smirking impudently, slowly getting up, his insides burning, dusting his clothes in a show-off, no-sweat manner.

_Come at me again. Come at me, and I won't budge. The Sharingan is the Uchihas', till the very end._

The Anbu took out a scroll from his kunai pouch and swiftly summoned a Fuuma shuriken. Well, wasn't that ironic? He had used that against Itachi. In a graceful, rapid movement, the Anbu shot out the shuriken, and time suddenly slowed down. The glistening silver of the metal came at him softly whistling, humming a melody of sorrow, blood and death, but he wouldn't duck, wouldn't change his stiff, firm stance that was rejecting this…dishonor in memory of all the fallen ones, his fallen ones. This village wasn't worthy enough to get him to spend his life within it. The shuriken had been only inches away from his chest when something collided brutally with him and took him out of danger's reach. As he was falling, he realized that it was in fact _someone_ that had pushed him away from the shuriken trajectory, someone that had so desperately wanted to keep him alive that they had gone to the extent of shielding him with their body. Sasuke made a not-so-graceful encounter with the ground, since he wasn't supporting his weigh only. Dazed and still in a haze, he heard a metallic, loud thud as the shuriken stopped its death course against the wall with such a violence that the sound echoed ferociously in the chamber. The body entangled with his made him realize just how _cold_ he had been, now that warmth surrounded him. A hand, smaller than his own, was firmly encircling his wrist, nails digging in his flesh, and he finally heard a heartbeat resounding within him, slowly waking his agonizing heart. All of the hatred slowly cowered under that single proof of life, this sturdy heart beating inside him when it didn't belong to him. He instantly knew that the hair tickling his cheek was bright pink, and the person panting in the nape of his neck was Sakura. She swiftly propped herself up with her arms, and his eyes met horrified viridian ones.

"What the _fuck_ do you think you're doing?" was the first thing she said, and for the life of him, he couldn't figure just why her scolding made him feel awake and alive and regretting the idiotic urge to defy death.

Something warm dripped on his forearm. Something warm, and _red,_ and certainly not _his_. Then he noticed that Sakura's right arm had been wounded and from the sharp cut, blood was slowly trickling, running along her white flesh in a scarlet furrow. He snapped out of the haze his darkness had plunged him in, his at long last alert senses catching not-too-friendly movements. The Anbu just didn't want to let it go. Sasuke barely registered the blood on Sakura's arm (_my-fault-my-fault-my-fault_), the dark shadow looming over their sprawled forms, the sliver of ominously gleaming metal and…his body moved on its own, turning them upside down. Sakura yelped in surprise, then, in mere, brittle moments, he saw realization dawning in her time-dulled eyes as she saw the impending danger taking a deadly leap at him, her eyes widening in shock. Her hand was still firmly holding his wrist, and it surprised him how serene he now felt, despite turning his back and thus giving himself to the enemy to kill. He didn't know about his own but…(he closed his eyes, his wrist felt warm and secure and attaching him to life)…He was hearing her heartbeat. He would hear till the very end. And that was enough.

* * *

**Author rambling:** I don't know if anyone noticed, but my chapters are getting steadily longer. I know it's still not enough but, well, that's the best I can do right now. This year is kind of decisive study-wise for me, so I have a lot of college work. But know that it is your reviews that kept me stealing whatever moments I could to write. I thank all of the reviewers for taking time to comment on this little infant of a story and err…please review again. And don't give up on me, I will finish the story (wink).


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's (express) note:** Three things: "Sorry for the late update", "Yay for longest chapter till now", and "Enjoy".

**Disclaimer:** *insert typical Disclaimer*.

**Chapter 8:** Pieces

* * *

_How did it come to this?_

Sakura could see everything, perhaps more than she wanted to. She could see the Anbu's shadow (_towering-assaulting-_**deadly**), the eerie silver gleam of his short katana, Sasuke's dark, calm, abyssal pupils, Sasuke's abandonment and cruel resignation and _he's-going-to-die-saving-me_. Sakura's heart was raging, racing, beating excruciatingly against her ribs so loud she could hardly hear the composed murmur of Sasuke's heart. And it was _scaring the living shit out of her_. She wanted to hear his heartbeat, to assure he was there, living, breathing, and _fuck-don't-you-stray-away-from-here_…She squeezed her eyes shut, in an instinctive, un-shinobi-like, desperate urge to reject the horrifying scenery that was displayed in front of her. All of her blood seemed to have been sucked out of her throbbing veins and into her brain in a furious haze of bloody confusion.

_Please-please-please-__**please**__, don't die on me too…_

There was a loud kicking noise, a surprised yelp, a stifled, hurt groan, a dull thud then she felt Sasuke's arms give way under his weight and falling unrestrainedly on her, the abrupt contact of his body with hers getting a muffled cry out of her sore lungs. A tangled mass of spiky hair tickled her nose, she was still holding firmly to his wrist, as though in a helpless attempt to anchor him to life, but then she was assailed by a rancid stench, that sent her arms convulsively embracing the _immobile-silent-still_ body only for her hands to meet damp, sticky fabric…(_Blood_)…All of the blood that had rushed through her brain froze in a blank mist…(_Blood_)…Everything was extremely silent, or had she just been momentarily deafened? She **had** to hear something. Where was she again? Why was she fighting? In that mere moment, she seemed to have completely forgotten… (_Blood-blood-blood-__**blood**_. His blood on his shirt. No. He was **not**. Stop thinking like that, open your eyes and **get a move**. _Please-please-please-please_)…Her heart was beating too fast, she couldn't hear a damn thing…She opened her eyes, only for her vision to be obstructed by dark, unruly hair. She willed her hands to discover yet again the origin of the dampness and…

"He's just out because of a severe hit on the head. The cut is not that sharp," a familiar voice drawled nearby.

In an instant, it was as if her mind emerged from a glacial lethargy. Every cell returned back to its function and she was herself again.

"Sasuke," she murmured in his ear, for her throat was still dry and painful for some reason.

A groan. The stupid bastard was just a little knocked out. Cursing, Sakura unceremoniously removed him from her, which earned her another grunt. Just moments ago, she had presumed the worst, and that had made her breath hitch and her whole mind to black out…It was almost embarrassing to think that he had had such an impact…

Shit.

_Stop. Focus._

_What the _hell_ happened?_

Sakura's eyes wandered around the room, completely unfocused. The Anbu was slowly recovering from a not-so-gentle encounter with the wall, his form slouched against it, his hands roaming messily on the floor, fingers nervously palpating the concrete. Sakura instantly knew what he was doing, or, more accurately, what he was looking for. Her eyes swiftly caught on an ominous glint only inches away from the Anbu's lost fingers. His katana. His bloodied katana.

Sakura's body tensed. She could do it in one leap. She could definitely jump, get that menacing sword, stained with Sasuke's blood (that seemed to fuel her anger, for a reason she couldn't quite pinpoint) and aim it at the still-dazed assailant. After all, he had been intent on harming them. She had to make sure. She had to anticipate and prevent this time at least.

"Don't," the poised voice advised her.

Sakura's head jerked to her right. Ashura was standing not too far away from Sasuke and hers sprawled forms, seemingly calm, intently scrutinizing the Anbu. Sakura noticed the discreet trickle of sweat running alongside his cheekbone, the graze on his right leg, and everything fell into place in her mind.

Ashura had protected them. He had come in between the enraged Anbu and Sasuke, kicking the assailant in midair. That had sent the Anbu flying to the opposite wall, the momentum of the kick deflecting the katana's trajectory so that it only grazed Sasuke but also most likely causing Ashura's leg to connect with Sasuke's skull, thus effectively knocking him out (she also suspected that the middle-aged Jounin didn't _try_ very hard to avoid hurting Sasuke).

Ashura had protected Sasuke.

Sakura didn't exactly know why he did it, but she felt a surge of gratefulness towards him wash over her nonetheless. If it hadn't been for him…Sakura unconsciously shuddered, self-loathing tasting bitter in her dry mouth. _Weak_, she scolded herself as she shot a wary glance at Sasuke's back. The wound was shallow, but the blood glistened grimly against his pale skin. _Her_ fault. She was still so weak, always having to rely on others to protect what _she_ had to protect, be it her master, Yamato and now even a random stranger like Ashura-san. Still so pathetically weak.

A faint rustle indicated that, while lost in self-pity, she had forgotten about the immediate danger, which had swiftly gotten up.

_Shit._

As the Anbu nonchalantly picked up his sword and began to make their way towards them, Sakura hurriedly scrambled to her feet and came between the crow-masked man and the unconscious Uchiha, a fierce frown darkening her determined eyes.

"Why did you protect him?" the high-pitched voice inquired.

It took Sakura sometime to realize he was actually talking to the Senior Jounin.

"Because it wasn't right to end his life this way," Ashura replied as calmly as ever, his hazel eyes hardening.

"It isn't right to end the life of a disrespectful traitor?" the Anbu retaliated, a dark edge in his cold voice.

"It isn't right to carry out your own justice, against the village rules," Ashura answered back, a displeased frown displayed on his face, voice poised, drawing nearer to Sakura until his shoulder bumped against her own.

The Anbu stopped a meter away from them. Sakura felt his ghostly eyes and his glacial, murderous intent on her, and something within her recoiled under the unease and tension, but that instantly faded away when she caught sight of the blood tainting the Anbu's katana, overwhelmed by the red, raw rage that took over her. Sakura must have made her fury apparent, since the Anbu darkly chuckled before asking in a low, threatening voice, "You won't forgive me for this, will you?"

He swung his katana expertly, with a velocity that made it hard for her to make out anything beyond a sliver of a menacing whirling gleam, before sheathing his sword.

"Rest assured. Neither will I," he added darkly.

His voice held promises of dread. And Sakura merely stayed silent, tacitly accepting his ominous invitation.

"Stop your jokes already, Anbu-san," Ashura growled, irritation now clearly evident in his voice. "You could be held accountable for those words."

"My, my, you're intent on standing by that troublesome child, Ashura-san…"

"Just get on with whatever you have come to say. I didn't know Anbu liked to talk this much," a low, but firm voice interrupted, bordering on insolence.

Sakura turned so rapidly that her neck burnt with a sharp pain. Sasuke had finally came to, his stance still a little unsure but his Sharingan eyes burning madly at the crow-masked man.

Sakura was torn between the fierce desire to pummel him (why did he always have to run his mouth off?) and the secret relief that begrudgingly washed over her at the sight of his trademark condescending smirk. Before she could choose a course of action, his slender fingers had wrapped themselves around her arm and he had pushed her back, effectively shielding her from the Anbu. She was being…sheltered by him? Sakura's temper flared. _Idiotic-stupid-arrogant_-**jerk**. Did he think she was as defenseless as before? She was going to show him just how _painfully wrong_ he was. Well, at least she had been willing to, until a raw, strong emotion filled her, taking her aback, completely throwing her senses off. It was a firm, fierce, unyielding determination. It was the will to protect.

Sasuke's will to protect.

* * *

The painful throb in his head made his surroundings seem a little hazy, with areas blindingly bright and others too dim for him to make out anything but the bed and ceiling. But he had been able to clearly hear the menacing words of the Anbu, words the slender, obscure shadow had directed at Sakura. And that had been the trigger to his lucidity.

Sakura shouldn't be the one to take that killing intent. _He_ was the traitor. He was the hateful one there. And she…She didn't have to take everything on her own. If they had to hate somebody, then let it be just him.

The somber chuckle of the Anbu annoyed him even further.

"Gladly," the man said in fake compliance, retrieving the scroll from which he had begun reading. "Uchiha Sasuke, for all the crimes you committed against this village, you are, as of now, sentenced to a probation period of undetermined duration. The council also reserves the right to take away any property or belongings you had owned prior to your treacherous leaving."

"_What?_" he growled, unmasked anger already seeping out from him. His family's heirloom, his clan's territory, in the hands tainted by Uchiha blood? His father's katanas handled by greedy, stained fingers, their mansion defiled by sinful elderly living off a highly paid peace, paid in his brother's pain, blood and mournful silence?

He almost _felt_ the Anbu's sneer, and, if his right arm's broken bone hadn't been sending ripples of ache throughout his shoulder, he would have lashed out at him already, damning the consequences. But that wasn't everything. Something else was tugging at the back of his mind, effectively preventing him from any other foolishly suicidal impulse. Something that resembled two horrified viridian pupils too much for his own taste.

"Not that there's much left anyway," the Anbu added, a thick layer of malice veiled behind each word.

Confusion settled in Sasuke's mind, replaced soon after by a faint sentiment of dread perniciously slithering in his insides. What the _heck_ was he hinting at? Before he had enough time to lace his mind around it, he felt slender fingers close around his wrist, thus causing pain to irradiate through his arm like wild fire, only to be dulled by the unwavering heartbeat that's become all too familiar now.

"Sasuke _was_ right. You really _do_ like to talk," Sakura leered, eyes narrowed.

"Don't wear my patience, little girl," the Anbu growled, irritated.

"Just carry on," Sasuke snapped, vaguely alarmed at the sudden attention Sakura was getting. Part of his mind wondered when the pink-haired girl's safety had become more important than his clan's heritage, but he impatiently shushed it, getting all the more annoyed.

Taut silence filled the cell, and all of Sasuke's muscles tensed up, his pupils vigilantly observing the mad swirl of chakra inside the Anbu, ready to push Sakura out of harm's way whenever the crow-masked man decided to strike. The young kunoichi's nails were digging again in his flesh, getting a hurt groan he could hardly stifle out of him, which immediately made her let go of his arm and her head snap suddenly to him. From his peripheral vision, he could see her eye his arm critically, realization dawning in her dull green orbs, and it was his turn to harshly take hold of her hand, without taking his eyes off the Anbu, even though it caused his right arm's nerves to catch fire and howl in agony.

_He can't know._

Sakura's heartbeat was a little precipitated, which told him she had quickly caught on the situation. Sasuke realized that part of him was relieved to hear her heart beat against his ribs, had mourned the loss of that eerie feeling when she had released his broken arm, was willing to relish in it. His fingers then roughly let go of her hand, mind confused and unsettled.

"Well, Anbu-san?" Ashura asked, the irritated edge in his voice getting Sasuke back to reality.

"Since you, Uchiha Sasuke, has brought forth destruction to Konoha because of your Bloodline Limit, it has been decided that your eyes are to be sealed. Permanently," the Anbu added after a while, voice laced with twisted satisfaction.

It took a moment for the words to fully register in Sasuke's mind, for the truth to completely sink in. When realization kicked in, desperate ire was already devouring him from the inside.

"What does this mean?" he demanded, tone _hostile-rough-snappy_, barely contained fury seeping through each syllable.

"It means that you will no longer be able to use the Sharingan," Ashura explained, his deep, leveled voice grimly ringing in the raven-haired young man's ears, his clear-cut words echoing harshly in devoid ripples bringing forth only perplexed vexation to his shocked mind.

Sasuke gritted his teeth. He could deal with them getting away with their crimes. He could try to shush the insidious whispers of insanity hatred was murmuring in his veins whenever he thought of how he was to abandon his clan's last belongings to them. He could strive to obediently lead a civilian life during that "undetermined" probation period, attempting to mask the dormant fury that twisted his insides. But, this…He couldn't. _Utterly-absolutely-completely_. These eyes were the only thing still linking him to his parents, this power was the last thing Itachi had granted him, only undying memento of ashen memories and departed souls. This was the only thing he could not, in any way possible, give up to this village.

Part of his mind that wasn't soaked in despaired confusion dimly noticed that, from another scroll he had fetched in his pouch, the Anbu had summoned a solid pair of handcuffs that he was nonchalantly swinging around his finger in quick, mechanic wrist motions.

"The sealing will take place tomorrow, at the Anbu headquarters," the man declared, voice neutral. "An Anbu medic will see to it, so that the operation doesn't result in unfortunate consequences on your overall health. You are to spend the night at headquarters, so as to be prepared for tomorrow…"

"No," was what evaded Sasuke's lips, his mind seeming to have gone in a state of permanent, cold, apathetic confusion. He was aware that Sakura had been ready to say something, but he didn't care.

_Enough already._

He'd had it. He was through with all this mayhem. He realized that his heart was _tired-exhausted-drained_. He had too much hatred pulsing down his sinful blood, too much _bleeding-blistering-scalding_ ire burning his vessels. This was too much. Taking away his eyes was too much. He was just going to refuse, point-blank, whatever the consequences may be.

"What was that?" The Anbu's voice was barely kept smooth, lightly shivering with something akin to anticipation. "Are you refusing the sentence?"

Sasuke stayed silent, trying not to wince when his head started to viciously throb again.

"If you do, then this'll lead us down one road only…" The Anbu added,

"We're not refusing anything!" Sakura affirmed, voice twitching with annoyance. "However, there are modifications that have just taken place, and that I've been sent to _kindly_ inform you about."

"Modifications?" the crow-masked man inquired, voice a little more forceful than it had previously been.

_Just shut up_, he internally growled, irritated. Didn't she understand it? He wanted finality. He wanted closure to this never-ending loop of darkness. He wanted out. If the only road to it was him dying, _then so be it_. At least, it would ensure her safety…

"The sealing will take place in the east wing of the hospital. Tsunade-sama will see to it herself," Sakura announced, chest swelling with pride at the mention that her master will supervise his stripping off the last thing that truly belonged to him.

"No," Sasuke said again, voice now dripping with threat.

He felt Sakura's disbelieving, quizzical stare, Ashura's slightly perturbed gaze and the Anbu's invisible, obscure, calculating pupils eyeing him with yet another shiver of _something-something-something _that resembled badly-concealed excitement, but he didn't care. His mind had gone _blank-devoid-_**numb**.

"Sasuke?" Sakura inquired softly, her handing reaching slowly for his.

"**No**," Sasuke reiterated through gritted teeth, ungraciously slapping her hand away, insensitive to the excruciating pain that was now throbbing in his limb.

It had been very long since he had last reached this state of pure, scorching rage that nibbled at hurt, raw emotions and devastatingly coursed through his mind, freezing his brain in dark, destructive lethargy.

Didn't they understand? These were _his eyes_. This was the Sharingan. The Uchiha's unique ability and their pride. The last remaining scraps of _his_ pride, and they were talking about stealing that from him as well so casually it was nauseating. The mere thought of losing that made bile rose to his mouth and made him taste dire.

For a mere second, Sakura's eyes held a familiar faint glitter that was crushed too soon by the dull harshness of her stern expression. Sasuke became all too aware of the stinging of the back of his hand, with which he had unceremoniously shook her off, and it felt as if that dreary throb came from within him, but that sensation vanished as soon as it came, only leaving him drowning in irritation.

"Sasuke, this is not the time," Sakura scolded, brows tightly knit, eyes like two dusty emeralds enlightened by the soft afternoon sunrays.

"Shut up!" Sasuke bellowed, voice raspy, tone coming out more forceful and wounded than he intended.

Fury weaved dark eulogies and _disconnected-confused-irate_ chunks of ideas in his mind, the throbbing in his head worsening and sending electric shots of pain through his eyes which, by now, he was sure washed red with the one power he couldn't let go of.

He saw Sakura's expression grow from severe to alarmed, and a sick, twisted feeling of dark satisfaction slithered its way to his heart, curling and coiling like the rabid, infuriated, hateful snake dyed into his very bones. His thoughts remained scattered, incomplete, useless shards of melted anger and bereaved anxiety, one vivid determination only coursing through his boiling blood: he would **not** give up the Sharingan.

Sakura's widened eyes gradually came back to their original size, her dull green orbs increasingly hardening with the passing of each silent-filled second. Sasuke was all too aware of the heavy atmosphere; he felt his muscles tense and stiffen, he felt adrenaline pumping into his heart, he felt ready for Sakura's attack, whatever it may be. If she were to become a tool to take his eyes away from him, he would…

_What? _

In that split second, Sasuke felt _caged-lost-helpless_. Was he seriously considering harming her? He couldn't do it. His fingers cracked ominously as he curled his hands into fists. What was he to do?

She was after his eyes.

_But she saved you._

He was going to die, anyway…

_You said you trusted her._

His loyalty was for his clan, first and foremost.

_You owe her._

**What was he to do?**

His senses suddenly felt an impending attack from behind. He was about to turn around and use that fist on anybody else (_their-fault-their-fault-their-fault_), anybody else that didn't have pink hair and dull, honest viridian eyes, whomever they may be, to release his rage and buy himself time. But he had been too absorbed, he had spent too long in that underground somber cell, his ninja reflexes had gone too long unsolicited. He felt a sharp pain irradiate the back of his head as an expert hand connected swiftly with his bare neck. As his vision faded to black, he thought he heard the Senior Jounin – his attacker – sermon him in his deep voice: "Show some respect to your wife, punk."

_What am I to do?_

* * *

Sakura could only watch in somber resignation (and concealed amazement) as Ashura effectively shut Sasuke up. She made a few steps forward, intent on catching Sasuke's unconscious body, but the Jounin beat her to it, holding him by the collar before unceremoniously colliding him with the wall. In a sitting position, Sasuke's limp figure was leaning against the wall, head hung and features hidden by his dark locks. For a brittle moment, Sakura thought that the hopelessly stubborn raven-haired young man would wake up to a sore neck and a throbbing head. Then she remembered what had led to this in the first place and the aching sadness was swiftly replaced by a mix of aggravated fatigue and vengeful frustration.

"Why have you done that?" the Anbu's voice tore into the thick atmosphere like a whip. When Ashura merely scrutinized him, he added, resentful: "He was about to finally make the right decision."

"He was about to attack our dear Hokage's pupil," Ashura interjected before the masked man could add anything. "Surely, you don't think it is the 'right decision', do you?" he added, chuckling darkly.

Sakura intently gazed at the Jounin's gleaming hazel eyes, realizing this was actually the second time he managed to save Sasuke's life. Something about the man's deep voice, his steady gaze, that tranquil self-confidence that emanated from his presence, was appeasing her nerves and clearing her head, and she marveled at the fact that, not too long ago, he had been charging at her and would have definitely, brutally knocked her out if it weren't for her master's presence.

Ashura's eyes locked with hers, immediately bringing out her lucidity.

"Carry on with what you began saying before that insolent, mindless lad interrupted you," he demanded, in a strict tone that held no harshness however.

It took Sakura some time to figure out what the middle-aged man meant, but soon enough, she had retrieved her previous train of thought. She noticed how Ashura had surreptitiously seated Sasuke so as he was in between the unconscious Uchiha and the crow-masked man, and she felt her heart swell and her resolve harden. She had an ally. Kind of.

"Tsunade-sama will see to the sealing herself," Sakura asserted in a firm voice.

"I haven't been informed of such a thing. What was decided was for the sealing to take place in the Anbu Headquarters. The very best Anbu medic will attend to it," the Anbu replied coolly.

_You mean the very best of the __**Root**__ Anbu medic, right?_

"Tsunade-sama has discussed this with the council," Sakura explained, trying to keep her temper at bay. "The sealing is delicate since it requires a very precise brain surgery to neutralize the brain zone which is responsible for Bloodline Limits activation and use. Shishou is the best medic-nin alive. The operation is more likely to be successful if _she_ handles it. The Jounins whom we informed on this matter actually agreed to it, and that's why I was sent here on the first place."

"Whom _you_ informed?" the Anbu asked, cold animosity creeping behind each syllable.

"Since we were informed on such short notice, we hurried to discuss this decision with the Jounins. We were _surprised_ to find out that all of those we asked didn't know the details of Sasuke's sentence," Sakura replied sarcastically, striving to contain her anger.

"What are you implying?" the Anbu questioned, voice glacial.

"Nothing, I'm merely shishou's messenger," the pink-haired kunoichi answered, unfazed, looking straight at the two dark slits from which the eyes of the masked man glared at her.

"Thank you for your hard work, Anbu-san," Ashura hurriedly interfered, voice even.

There was a pregnant pause.

"I was asked to escort the Uchiha to Headquarters," the Anbu declared in an automaton's dull voice.

"_I_ will see to that matter," Ashura replied, brows furrowed. "What are Godaime-sama's arrangements for this?" he then asked Sakura with an incisive tone, his eyes sharp and inquisitive, and with such velocity that it threw her off.

"I-I…Tsunade-sama was talking about dispatching some Anbu to escort Sasuke," she fumbled with her words.

Ashura's head sharply turned to the Anbu.

"The Godaime has spoken," he said in a peremptory tone.

The silence that followed was one of the tensest Sakura had ever had to live through. It felt as though the Anbu's glacial, menacing intents had perniciously poisoned the atmosphere with sheer dread.

"This little girl seems to have heard the Godaime speak, whereas I haven't heard any words coming from the Godaime," the Anbu replied in a whistling hushed tone, before reiterating with something more frighteningly disturbing than obstinacy in his voice, "_I_ was ordered to escort the Uchiha to Headquarters."

For the first time since last night, Sakura saw Ashura's eyes burn with fierceness, his square jaw set and hard. Dangerous. For the first time in some twelve hours, Sakura was reminded that Ashura was a Senior Jounin, who could very well _hurt-injure-__**harm**_. Who could very well turn to an efficient danger, were she to be deemed a nuisance to the village. Uneasiness trapped her limbs as the atmosphere turned from stiff and awkward to downright deadly, mauling intents whispering omens of bloodshed that dully resounded within her.

"I won't lie, Anbu-san," Ashura's voice cut out, each syllable detached in such a threatening manner that the words shot through the air like swirling senbons. "Your attitude towards that guy," he lazily pointed a finger to Sasuke's unconscious form, "worries me a little. Go cool off your head, and remember your priorities. I, a _Senior Jounin_, will take care of things here."

Sakura suddenly felt morbid claws viciously close around her heart, and _tear-__**kill-kill-kill**_. Her breathing hitched for a mere second, before she forcefully regained control, as she couldn't afford showing weakness even for a brittle second.

_Killing intent_, she mused, cold sweat leisurely running down her spine.

The Anbu was stiff, silent, a mask of oblivion, a shadow of murder, blood and secrecy. Sakura warily eyed Ashura. If not for the strain of his jaw, she wouldn't have suspected that he had felt that powerful killing intent.

"I see," the crow-masked man spat. "I will take my leave now, _Senior Jounin-san_," he added, bowing with all but respect, tone resentful.

The Anbu then walked out of the cell in a slow, assertive motion, his footsteps darkly echoing in the corridor, until a dim "puff" was heard, and Sakura knew he had disappeared, only leaving a trail of somber menaces behind. She then realized that her fingers, without trembling (it wasn't the first time her body received a full-blow of harming intent, either) were somehow unsteady and not really reliable for the moment. And she cursed herself for being affected by the Anbu.

"You," Ashura said in a peremptory tone.

A feeble groan reminded her of Sasuke's existence. She turned to him, only to realize Ashura was in between them, staring at her with severe hazel eyes. It wasn't until she studied his features that she noticed the discreet trickle of sweat disappearing in his temples. Seemed like the Anbu's little stunt hadn't gotten to her alone, she mused, taking coward relief in that fact. Sakura could only wait for him to proceed with what he wanted to say, trying to muster a calm, interrogating stare.

"Hokage-sama _has_ ordered a dispatch of Anbu to escort him, hasn't she?" he demanded, eyes ablaze as the almost-accusing words spilled from him, taking the young kunoichi aback.

Sakura's temper flared with annoyance. Why was his tone so dictatorial and inquisitive? What did he want from her? She was at her wits' end **too**. The council was enough of a problem, without this Anbu wreaking havoc on his own, or was he? Wasn't he here on the counselors' orders? And Sasuke…Sakura winced, trying to discard that nameless emotion that got hold of her whenever she remembered his dark sneer as the Fuuma Shuriken whirled dangerously closer and closer _and closer_ to him. She gritted her teeth. This…_This_ was annoying. She was about to seethe when she took notice of the dark blood stain on the man's Jounin pants. And this was her wake-up call.

Ashura had stood between them and the Anbu. He had his name and title on the line. And he chose to have faith in her words. He had protected both her and Sasuke. Twice.

All of her struggling emotions were relegated to background, as she chose to at least be worthy of the middle-aged man's choice.

"She was discussing the matter with the other Jounins, who acquiesced to her word, and she had been ready to order Anbu to come," Sakura responded evenly. "It's just a matter of time."

The man's stance relaxed immediately.

"I see," he mumbled, relief seeping seemingly involuntarily from his wary tone.

Sakura studied the features of the Jounin, the little creases around his eyes, the small wrinkles in between his eyebrows that would get marvelously accentuated when he frowned and would only make him look more menacing, the discreet, well-hidden hints of grey in his temples. When she had first seen him, in those first, idle, fickle hours of dawn, she had thought him in his mid-thirties. Now, after closer observation, she had to admit that he looked much older, roughly in his late-forties, which only added to the admiration Sakura reluctantly felt building inside her. Few shinobi reached that age, even when talented, powerful, **strong**. _Like Kakashi-sensei_, she mused somberly, bereaved sadness threatening to take hold of her. _And…_

_No._

Few shinobi had the right combination of luck, power, talent, stealth, or sheer survival-will that pulled them so further than the others, those others you would think unwavering and immutable that still succumb to mortality, those others she thought would laugh at Death and beat it, but were still human, still mortal underneath that, and she had hated them for it.

Those few blessed (or cursed, no one could tell) by that longevity formed the Jounin council, which embodied years of field experience. Whenever the counselors and the Hokage couldn't reach a compromise, they would settle down the discord, their decisions reflecting years of surviving to fallen comrades and lost loved ones, and most blood-tainted hands.

"That operation…"

Ashura's deep voice smoothly took Sakura away from her dark brooding and into reality once more. Her mind faintly registered that the sun was striving to let out its last, dim rays across the room as dusk hungrily devoured the withering orange and violet hues of a dying day. A soft shuffling sound reminded her again that Sasuke was still in that cell, collapsing in and out of consciousness, which indicated that he would come to in the next few moments. Sakura's eyes hurriedly darted from his slouched form to the Jounin's robust silhouette, which had cleared the path to Sasuke and was eyeing her questioningly, seeming to ask: "What are you waiting for to go over to him?"

She didn't know herself. She only knew that whenever her gaze fell on Sasuke, she would recall how he had faced, how he had _welcomed_ death earlier, and her chest would constrict painfully. She preferred dismissing those feelings for the moment, as long as he remained silent and unmoving and _breathing_.

"That sealing operation," Ashura continued, arching a single brow at her unmoving figuring, not commenting nonetheless, for which Sakura was thankful, "has already been tried, hasn't it?"

That single question triggered all the emotions Sakura had been fighting off so desperately since she entered that cell to break loose. But what was killing her was fear. The fear that had eaten at her heart as soon as she had heard the council's decision.

"Yes," she replied in a shakier voice than intended. "Orochimaru had tried to manipulate that area in one of his researches. After injecting Shodaime's DNA in those children, the survivors, thirteen out of sixty at the time, didn't seem to show any special ability, even after adapting to Shodaime's cells. Orochimaru had then forcefully tried to trigger the brain zone responsible for Bloodline Limits. Only one of them survived the operation."

Sakura unwillingly recalled her master's indignant words, when Tsunade had harshly invited herself inside the counselors' chamber, her pupil tailing her, her heart skipping a beat every two footsteps.

"_This is _**insane**_. This has never been tried out by __**anyone in their right mind**__ before. You're sending him to his death. This is just another way for you to execute him."_

"_Tsunade, you should stop your empty accusations. He has brought destruction to Konoha because of his eyes. Taking them out is the sole punishment fit enough if we are willing to let him live. We're not actively seeking his demise."_

"_Enough with your cheap logic! Do you know just how delicate this operation is?"_

"_You don't have to bear this responsibility, Tsunade. He will be taken care of by the best Anbu medic."_

"_(humorless laughter) Oh, no, you twisted old foxes. I __**will**__ bear that responsibility, for I am most likely one of the few to actually give a damn about the burden of taking away that life."_

Sakura's blood began thumping hastily against her ears again.

_I can't lose my cool. Now of all times._

"One of thirteen, huh," Ashura mused, the crease in between his brows vivid and noticeable. "And the Jounins agreed to it, so that's that. Tricky operation, isn't it?"

Sakura nodded tersely, her neck suddenly stiff, her muscles tense.

"It is a very delicate intervention on such a small portion of the brain," she carried on, giving unrequested explanations. "An unsteady hand, a small push, an unintended pressure, and he could end up blind, paralyzed or…"

As her eyes fell on the heaving and falling chest of the Uchiha, her throat tightened, and words didn't seem willing to get out. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again. What was it with her? It wasn't the first time she had talked about death. Not the first time she was envisioning the loss of a patient to a 'tricky operation' as a hateful, but very plausible and possible outcome. Then what?

"Dead," Ashura finished for her, his impenetrable stare reflecting something she couldn't muster the strength to name just yet.

She nodded stiffly yet again.

"And they were planning on relegating that task to the Anbu," he mumbled, his incisive hazel eyes scrutinizing Sasuke, nose scrunched up as he more thought out loud than really talked to her. "In those Headquarters where only the Anbu are allowed. An accident is so easy that…"

_That disguising an execution as such would be effortless. _

The counselors didn't order for the execution. No, Heaven forbid, the Nidaime's memory prevented them from it. Instead, they were just baiting the resentful remains of the Root to take out that annoying, sole living evidence of their crime. And if Sakura's master _was_ intent to do the operation herself, the success rate was still incredibly low. Sasuke might very well end up unable to talk or actively oppose them after the sealing took place. That is, if he was still breathing at the end.

A complete win-win situation for them. Sakura could almost taste bile in her mouth, acrid repugnance and insidious panic churning her insides.

A loud, rash knock on the cell door disrupted the wary silence without dissipating any of the accumulated tension in the room. The temperature in the room seemed to have dropped drastically, and Sakura could almost feel Death's nightly cape dissolving in the shadows, at every corner of the room. Her eyes were still on Sasuke, absently gazing at the slowly quickening rise and fall of his ribcage.

"Guess it's the Anbu," Ashura announced, heaving an exhausted sigh.

He turned to the door, leisurely massaging the back of his neck.

"Take your time. Wake him. Talk to him," the man advised, his voice even, awkward scratching replacing the laid-back massaging at the back of his neck, however. "I'll brief the escort."

_Translation: I'll buy you some time. _

"Why?"

Ashura stopped, hand on the handle of the door, turning a puzzled gaze to her.

"That brat isn't all in his head, is he? You have to talk some sense into him, right?"

"No, not that. Why are you helping us?" Sakura rectified, intensely scrutinizing the man's eyes, which seemed brownish in the fading day. "Why did you protect him? You seemed to approve of his death last time. Had you let that Anbu do it, you would have gotten what you thought was only righteous, without dirtying your hands or disobeying orders. Then why?"

She held his deep, impenetrable stare, where she saw a flicker of _something-something-something_ she had yet to name. The man then scoffed loudly, turning fully to face her, ignoring the reiterated, now impatient knock at the door.

"That guy isn't the only one to face punishment. You didn't make it here unscathed, am I right?" he asked, pointedly eluding her question.

Sakura shook her head, arching a brow at him. What was he getting at? To her surprise, he didn't prod about her own punishment, only nodded knowingly.

"To answer your question: I didn't protect him. He's a wounded, capricious kid. I still think he is dangerous. However, I have no right to carry out my own justice. Neither does that man," Ashura added, frowning disapprovingly, and Sakura knew he was referring to the crow-masked Anbu.

"When in a village, you have to obey the rules, or else, chaos would take over, and the village would collapse," the Jounin further explained. "We are not to question orders."

"That's what you think?" Sakura questioned, gazing at Sasuke. It was those principles that led him there, with no clan, no family, no ties to the world of the living.

"That's what I believe," Ashura replied, voice even and serene.

"Even if those orders included the slaughter of children and spilling of innocent blood?" Sakura further pried, annoyance slowly bubbling up inside her.

When no response was heard and the silence stretched to irritating levels, she jerked her head towards him, temper barely at bay. She was angry. She felt _betrayed_. That man was revealing himself to be just like the others, and it was maddeningly frustrating her. When her eyes fell on the sad, bitter smile adorning his lips, some of that anger receded behind confusion.

"Did you know, Uchiha Sakura, what is the main preoccupation of the newest Anbu medic recruit?" Ashura asked, eyes suddenly turned wary, exhausted, _old_.

When he got no other reaction than a wince at her new surname (she was never going to adapt to that one), he answered himself.

"Making sleeping drugs that would be powerful enough to give the rookies a dreamless, fair share of rest, so that they don't end up killing themselves. That task can take up from two months to a full year."

Sakura felt as though her insides had turned to molten lead, weighing painfully on her legs.

"We are shinobi. We are the ones doing the world's dirty work," he finished, words curt and acid. "But that doesn't make us any less human," he added as an after-thought. "As long as the Hokage seems decent enough, then I'll have faith in their judgment. Sandaime, Yondaime, Godaime…Those are the ones whose actions I've seen and judged as adult. They are more than decent. That's why it is my honor to serve under them. It is my duty not to question them, and to protect those promising buds that will be our village's tomorrow," he finished, the dying sunrays exposing his softened gaze.

"And that's why you protected me?" Sakura murmured, still confused as to how exactly she felt.

The man didn't answer. Instead, he opened the door behind which Sakura distinguished three indistinct lean silhouettes.

"Yare, yare," he sighed, closing the door behind him. "What a handful you youngsters are, these days."

* * *

"Wake up," a familiar voice ordered, none-too-pleased.

Sasuke grimaced, the throbbing in his head having receded as a dull pain came from his neck.

"Sore neck, huh?"

It wasn't a question. It was a statement laced with vengeful victory. Sasuke blinked, the blank mist obstructing his vision fading away slowly. Sakura was sitting on the concrete beside him, leaning on the wall, her roseate tresses taking up maroon hues as the day's agony withered in night's black satin arms. She was looking ahead of her, brows furrowed, eyes dangerously flashing, fists curled and taut, stiffly rested on her knees, as though she was trying hard not to hit something-_or someone_, he thought, trying to recall how he got in that position that earned him an aching neck.

It took him only fleet seconds to remember everything, and the entire pure, unadulterated wrath came back with so much power that the dull throb in the back of his neck went unnoticed.

"What _the hell_ was that about?" she asked, voice holding an edge Sasuke should have been apprehending, hadn't he been so _damn angry_.

"I'm not doing it," he growled flatly.

"You don't have a choice in the matter," Sakura answered back, her fingers' articulation ominously cracking.

"I do," he retaliated, his growl sounding more and more like that of a wounded beast.

Sakura let out a bitter, mirthless, mocking laughter that echoed darkly in the cell.

"You want to die, then?" she sneered, still not looking at him, eyes narrowed, a condescending smirk adorning her lips. "For what? _What do you want to prove, for God's sake?_"

"I want to die like I was born. An Uchiha," he countered, his voice escalating the same way hers did.

"Ah, yes. The Uchihas' pride! That which you have _already_ tainted by joining Akatsuki _to destroy the village_, but you can't do it when it's _your life on the line_!" Sakura screeched, at last turning to face him.

Sasuke's fist crashed on the patch of ground separating them, emitting a thunderous sound.

"All I have done was for their memories. You don't…You can't understand," he growled, his tone growing deadlier. He activated the Sharingan, clashing blood red pupils with her dull green ones, his fist still digging in the concrete. "I won't give these up to them. These. Are. MY. EYES."

He had expected her to cower under his irate crimson glare. He had at least thought her retaliation would be shy, disturbed, _affected_. He clearly hadn't anticipated her immediate, incredibly fast reaction and, before he knew it, Sakura's crouched form was in front of him, viridian pupils on fire, while he could sense the side of her hand on his neck.

"No, _you_ don't understand," she seethed. "If you kick the bucket, you're only doing _them_ a favor. ONCE YOU DIE, IT'S OVER."

"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN. THIS IS THE LAST THING I'LL _EVER_ GET FROM MY FAMILY."

"_YOU_ ARE THE LAST THING I'LL EVER GET FROM _HIM_!"

They were both left panting in silence as his throat refused to emit any sound, part of his ferocious anger turning to mild numbness at her words. His lack of reaction seemed to only fuel Sakura's fury, her hand now putting mild pressure on his neck.

"WHAT _THE HECK_ HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU?" she screeched. "WHY ARE YOU SO INTENT TO LET THEM GET AWAY WITH WHAT THEY'VE DONE, ALL OF A SUDDEN? WHERE'S THE MAN WHO WAS READY TO LIVE A MISERABLE, UNSIGHTLY LIFE SO HE COULD AVENGE HIS FAMILY? WHAT _THE HECK_ IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

Sasuke was flabbergasted, feeling as though she had plunged him headfirst in icy water. He hadn't been expecting that. At all.

_What is she…? _

Suddenly, the hand at his neck seemed very, _very_ annoying. So did her voice. And her words. And how the truth behind them echoed painfully in his ears. His hand jerked up to hers, taking it harshly away from his skin, pressing hard on her fingers, intending to _hurt_. He had forgotten that touching her would immediately cause him to feel her heartbeat, which was as unsteady as his own.

_AN-NO-YING_.

"Shut up," he rumbled, voice rocky as his irritation hit its paroxysm. "What _the heck_ do _you_ want from me?"

They glared at each other. Sakura's chest was rising and falling hurriedly, matching her erratic heartbeat. It wasn't until then that he realized he was still crushing her hand in his, and she had yet to show any signs of pain. Part of him also noticed how close contact when both were angered had become sort of a habit without him being really aware of it. And this just further grated his nerves, for some unknown reason. He yanked his hand away from hers, teeth gritted so hard that a disagreeable prickling sensation settled in his jaw.

Sakura's eyes turned from enraged viridian flames to dull green ashes.

"You said you trusted me," she spat accusingly. "And I thought you did. Then next thing I see is you playing target for a Fuuma Shuriken that was going to behead you. And you were _smirking_."

Sakura's voice had gone decrescendo, now only a little louder than a whisper. And Sasuke, disoriented, felt he preferred hearing her shrill at him, rather than that broken voice.

"I _believed_ you. I worked my ass off to keep you alive. Do you think I'm okay with that sealing? It's _unprecedented_. It's _dangerous_. You could _die_. I am _out of my mind_ with worry, and I'm trying to find a way out. And you suddenly have suicidal urges?"

Sakura hung her head, her hand absent-mindedly massaging her forehead, hiding her eyes. He was all of a sudden struck by a scalding feeling that burnt his insides, alien to his own sensations. It was Sakura's. And she felt…_betrayed_. She had been…worried? _**He**_ had made _**her**_ worry?

"I can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved, Sasuke," she declared, voice slightly trembling.

"I don't understand," he said, voice even. It wasn't until that very moment that he realized he had unknowingly, at some point, deactivated the Sharingan.

Sakura looked quizzically at him, puzzlement alighting her eyes a little.

"I thought you would be relieved if I died of my own accord. It wouldn't have been your responsibility to bear."

Sakura's gaze hardened. For a long moment, she just mutely studied him with harsh eyes. Then her hands flew to his shirt. A surprised groan escaped his lips and, before he knew it, Sakura had unzipped it. Her fingers then settled over the Nidaime's seal, and it seemed as though his brain caught fire, unable to manage all of the sensations that had suddenly found their way to his nerves.

"Do you know what this is, Sasuke?" she asked, fire back in her eyes as she lightly tapped the seal with her fingers. "This is just to what extent I can go. This is my resolve. This means we're both into this now. I am responsible _for life_, do you understand?"

He held her glare with one of his own. He was aware of Sakura's slender fingers on his flesh, but he didn't bother take them off. In fact, for a reason he couldn't quite pinpoint, there was a warm feeling that had nothing to do with the swirl of emotion her touching his "Bind" seal was provoking.

He finally understood what Sakura was telling him, why she had been so infuriated.

_Don't give up._

He still had unfinished business with the council. He still had to honor both his brothers' memories. He couldn't die just yet. And…

"So, that's why," she said, voice now strong, steady and threatening, the side of her hand returning to put delicate, but ominous pressure on his neck. He remembered that Sakura was a medic, and finally understood the danger in her gesture. "If I ever see you that eager to die again, _I will kill you_. With my own hands."

_If you're going to die, die fighting. _

And he _had_ told Sakura he trusted her, right? He had an ally in her. A reluctant one. But an ally all the same.

"Gimme that damn broken arm of yours," she finally grumbled, and Sasuke gingerly lifted his right arm, refusing to wince as his nerves caught fire.

As her chakra flew through him, he faintly mused if any medic nin's healing would make him feel so peaceful, or if that was because _Sakura_ was the one healing him.

When she swiftly got up, paused before reluctantly turning a helping hand to prop him up on his feet, Sasuke realized, as his hand closed around hers, that he was relieved to have her by his side.

"Now, shall we get going?"

* * *

**Author's end note:** It's finished! I had intended for other things to happen in here, but I thought I would at least update a little, so that this doesn't get forgotten. However, I'm still unsatisfied with some things in this chapter. I therefore need your opinion to see if it affected the chapter's quality as a whole, or if I'm the only one noticing those little mishaps.

Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.

See you later (in an another six months *is shot*).


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note:** This chapter is dedicated to **Herana**, for being such an awesome and supportive reviewer, and to my anonymous reviewers. Thank you for your support and kindness, it has gotten me striving to improve myself.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Naruto, don't intend to steal it anytime soon.

**Chapter 9:** Out From Under

* * *

"You're late," Tsunade scolded the curious, mismatched party her eyes landed upon, which consisted of a battered, handcuffed, hard-jawed Sasuke, feet constricted by faintly glowing chains (_Chakra-restricting binds_, Tsunade recognized) surrounded by three Anbu escorting him roughly, yanking on his chains when he slowed down, that which earned them dirty, vicious looks from her green-eyed pupil, who seemed sometimes keener on giving them a piece of her mind rather than just flashing them hostile glares, but was hastily and effectively shushed by Ashura's eloquent gaze.

"My deepest apologies, Hokage-sama," the Jounin responded with deference, eyeing her pupil with barely concealed irritation and glaring openly at the stiff Uchiha. _Uchiha Sasuke_, she reminded herself, since, with two Uchihas, the distinction had to be made. "Their _lovers' spat_ took more time than I thought it would."

Ashura's words took no time to have their direct impact on both Uchihas. The lean, dark figure of the chained heir stumbled and would have made a disgraceful encounter with the ground would it not have been for the guards holding his chains up. As for Sakura, her cheeks were now a rubies' tint that went admirably with her hair.

"What…We're not…That wasn't," she stammered, frantically waving her denial. "_That wasn't a lover's spat_," she finally, determinedly affirmed.

"Ashura," Tsunade called out in a disapproving tone, everyone missing the dangerously gleeful glint glittering in her amber eyes, even Ashura, whose posture suddenly went stiff, bowing with reverence as hushed apologetic words shied away from his mouth and into the nightly, frosty draught. "They're not _mere_ lovers, they are _husband and wife_. The distinction has to be made," she added, unable to repress the mischievous smile that had made its way to her lips.

Ashura's composure considerably relaxed, his lips sternly refusing to curve, but his eyes alit with complicit laughter. Sakura whimpered in despair and exasperation, trying to hide her burning cheeks behind temple-massaging hands, in vain, and, for the very first time, the Anbu seemed to take pity on Sasuke, whose eyes were fixed on the wall across from him, ears faintly tinged pink. The Hokage's smile grew bigger. Teasing her hard-headed pupil was not only tempting, it was too rewarding. She was really beginning to enjoy it, but that wasn't all…

"Let us not waste anymore time," she then advised, a light frown marring her features, stepping aside to clear the way for the escort who were beginning to show faint signs of impatience.

Curtly bowing another time, Ashura fell swiftly into step with the Anbu, stern dutifulness taking over his facial expression, softened only by the dim amenity that his eyes betrayed when he looked back at the pink-haired kunoichi. It took Sakura a little more time to realize the movement and scurry behind the retreating back of the Jounin, but Tsunade stopped her dead in her tracks when she merely called her name in a voice loud enough only for the young girl to hear.

"Sakura." Tsunade realized her tone came out softer than she intended, but again, she had noticed that Sakura had had this effect on her for several times now. In fact, it wasn't only about her tone of voice. Sakura had gained, somewhere along those harsh years of training, bleeding and war, the ability to bring out her gentler side. Almost like Naruto.

Ah, there it was again. Fear.

At that time, when she had accepted to become Hokage, she hadn't signed up for this. She hadn't signed up for her heart, which she had so _carefully-carefully-carefully_ locked away, to be swayed so much by that little blonde runt and for her bond to Jiraiya to resurrect and even…Even…

"Shishou?" Sakura inquired, the faint blush from earlier slowly receding as her eyes had returned to their dull, hardened state.

Yes, Tsunade had come to like teasing that stubborn, clumsy, strong-willed, adorable little girl, for the mere, simple reason that Sakura felt more alive in these rare, brittle moments, nothing like that pale, hollow shell with _dark-dead-haunting_ eyes, with barely any hint of green in them, she had been after Naruto's death. The Godaime recalled that moment when, in that sunny, repulsively shinny day, Sakura had come forward to put down a single, bereaved, carnadine rose on Naruto's grave. When their eyes met, Tsunade didn't see the usual flickering of life in those pupils. She remembered the glacial, numbing anxiety that had pounded in her heart when realization pulsed through her brain.

_These might as well be the eyes of a corpse. _

After that day, it seemed as though Sakura was just acting reflexively, mechanically responding to life's requests. Fake, cold smiles and lifeless expressions. As though Naruto's soul's wings, when they spread, had inadvertently grasped longing, sorrowful wisps of hers, leaving her _broken-shattered-hollowed_, striving to reach herself again, like a river desperately trying to reflect what it had just drowned. And Tsunade could only watch from afar, powerless, not knowing how she could reach out to that little girl, with whom death had so mercilessly toyed, seeing a broken reflection of her past self in Sakura. And there it had stricken her. Fear. Because discovering that she _did care_, even more so than she had first thought, was always a frightening experience for Tsunade, for it meant there was someone else (_Nawaki-Dan-Jiraiya-_**Naruto**) she could lose.

_This child, if no one intervenes…She'll become like _**me**_. _

And the thought had sent dark waves of both apprehension and helplessness down her spine, into her bones and within her very core. If that kept up, she had somberly thought, Sakura would give up on this world tainted with absence and reject it. But Tsunade had been underestimating her pupil. For Sakura hadn't fled, like _she_ had done, but had faced her darkest wounds. One of which involved the dark heir to a cursed bloodline who was walking ahead of them in the hospital's South Wing's corridors, alive and breathing, and Sakura would die before she'd allow _him_ to be harmed. And just like that, he had gotten Sakura back. Tsunade didn't know how exactly but that Uchiha Sasuke, one way or another, had injected the raw, fierce pounding of pure _life_ back in her apprentice.

Human beings were such twisted, bizarre beings, who could easily choke on happiness or…find solace in what once poisoned them.

"Shishou?" Sakura reiterated, eyes quizzical, urgency leaking from her hushed tone.

Tsunade sighed, a hopeless subterfuge to stop the melancholic smile she felt lurking on her lips. Sakura's eyes didn't shine brightly like they used to, but those dull pupils didn't speak of anguishing death anymore. For that, the Hokage admitted she felt a _little-tiny-bit_ grateful.

"Are you ready for this?" Tsunade finally asked, tone stern but not unkind. When Sakura only furrowed her brows in confusion, she added, "How are your chakra reserves?"

"They can survive a four-hour operation," Sakura replied, fiery determination seeping through her words. "Maybe even more."

"Good," was the elderly woman's curt response. "Let's get going."

Yes, Tsunade had definitely not signed up for this. But if keeping Sakura meant saving Sasuke, _then so be it_. She wasn't going to let mocking Death have its way any longer. As she saw Sakura hurriedly making her way through the corridor to get to the pushed-around prisoner, Tsunade finally let a bittersweet smile adorn her lips.

Her old age had to be catching up on her, now, hadn't it?

* * *

Sakura had to admit that she was feeling more than a little restless. She didn't particularly like the South Wing of Konoha's hospital. The alleyways always felt _austere-inquisitive-oppressing_, the atmosphere more akin to a strained, resigned silence than the peaceful quiet of the rest of the hospital. As if the air around them wasn't charged enough in dark clouds of ominous electricity…As the Godaime led them to the operation room, she saw the medics in charge of that wing's grim faces get all the more somber when they walked past them.

_Well, isn't this going to be fun… _

She felt Ashura's perspicuous gaze on her, but she decided to ignore it for the time being, drawing nearer to Sasuke and his guard. Not a glance was shared as they walked in grave silence, but somehow, somehow…Her agitated nerves seemed to settle for a fragile moment of deaf silence.

Until she realized that Tsunade was leading them underground.

Every cell in her body painfully tensed as nerves spat pure electricity into her muscles._ They-were-going-underground-they-were-going-underground-they-were-going-underground-they_-

A shoulder lightly bumped against her own, excavating her just in time before she was smothered by the growing velocity of her heartbeat. Sasuke still blankly looked ahead of him, as one of the Anbu roughly elbowed him and yanked at his chains so he would again fall into step with them, cursing under his breath. It took Sakura a brittle moment to realize what had happened, as she, for the first time since they had entered the hospital, took in Sasuke's ashen face.

He had felt it. Sasuke had felt her secret moment of silent anguish, and so he had awoken her with his subtle touch, escort be damned. Uchiha Sasuke, _the_ cold, misanthropic Sasuke, had actually sought physical contact with _her_, to stop the resurfacing anxiety that had caught her nerves in a draughty embrace. Suddenly, Sakura felt grateful that the Godaime, with her hurried pace, had taken them to the stony stairs that led them to the ancient, dim-lit underground part of the Hospital. Her cheeks were burning and, for the life of her, she wouldn't have been able to tell Ashura's inquisitive stare the reason for it, nor could she name the warmth that had succeeded the stammering pulse in her heart. Wait a second…Ashura-san was actually _smirking_. Sakura chose to pointedly ignore that, glaring at their uncertain shadows dancing on the murky stone walls, wavering along with the torches' fickle flames, the fire barely receding off her cheeks.

They were reaching the end of the corridor, which consisted of two heavy, finely-chiseled, gleaming-black metal doors, engraved with austere, symmetric sets of cryptic symbols. Too absorbed by the ominous, diffuse, rusty scent of the past the doors exhaled, Sakura didn't notice at first the shadow that seemed to slither off the wall and soundlessly made its way to the nerve-grated guards, after offering a curt nod to the Hokage; she thus started when a voice broke the charged silence.

"I'll take it from there," the bland voice said, the lean silhouette of a skinnier Anbu revealing itself, their fox mask faintly caressed by stray, feeble traces of the dim torches' light, having the prisoner handed to him with barely-concealed relief, as one of the sentinels hastily exchanged hushed words with the Godaime, but Sakura couldn't compel herself to focus enough to grasp any of the conversation.

That blank voice had reverberated within her, striking a familiar chord in her memory as disbelief valiantly battled the growing waves of anticipation that roared through her brain.

_Can't be_, she tried to reason herself, striving not to let out any of the greedy eagerness to display itself on her features. _And failing_, she realized when Tsunade flashed her a warning scowl that evaded the retreating Anbu but that Ashura, and even Sasuke, didn't fail to notice.

_Damn. _

But if the Godaime had acted like that, then it must mean…That must be..._It was him_. Relief instantly shattered the reefs of accumulated nervousness and left her slightly trembling.

_Get a grip_, she scolded herself, eluding Ashura's perspicuous gaze, as the Godaime firmly informed him that they could get by on their own from that moment onwards, trying not to intently stare at the Anbu and thus ending up looking at Sasuke instead. Sasuke's pallid complexion and dead eyes immediately cooled her exhilaration.

"Is an Anbu really enough?" she faintly heard Ashura inquire with his usual deferent tone.

Only through further inspection could anyone notice that Sasuke's lips were pursed ever-so-slightly, unique sign of apprehension that escaped the last Uchiha's control over his unreadable features.

Sasuke never showed any.

Which meant he had to be extremely agitated, wrecked by the loss he was doomed to. And Sakura suddenly felt guilty for bathing in respite, even for a second. Sasuke was about to lose a power so ingrained in his being that it had become inherent to his pride and part of his entity. For the first time, Sakura indulged in feelings she had long shut off when it came to him, and the next thing she knew was that her hand moved on its own, reaching for his cheek.

"This is only a sealing expert who will uphold some of the rituals with us. The others were dispatched at every entrance of the hospital, in case of some unexpected escape attempt," came the explanation of the Godaime as though from some detached and faraway reality, Sakura barely registering the words at all, terrified at the steady movement of her less steady hand but unable to stop herself.

Her shaky fingers gently tapped his cheek. The touch was too faint for her to feel his heartbeat, but it got Sasuke off his fixation of the dark doors, his eyes not quite alive but not holding haunted ashes anymore, and slightly, barely widened with the surprise her awkward pat induced.

His skin was cold but not disagreeable to touch, a voice whispered at the back of her mind, when the Anbu, still holding onto Sasuke's chains, albeit not as tensely as the former escort, ostensibly cleared his throat. Sakura took back her hand as hastily and suddenly as if Sasuke's skin had caught fire, whereas the Uchiha heir tersely jerked back his head to the dark contemplation of what laid ahead of him, whatever it was.

Was the atmosphere this charged in magnet fever just a while ago? Sakura decided she didn't care, didn't want to know, didn't think it was even her business to find out. She had a draining and dainty task ahead of her, and _she'd better start focusing now_. And, no, there wasn't any ethereal feeling of warmth coiling within her insides at the moment which wouldn't let her concentrate, she was very much composed, _thank-you-very-much_.

If only the hand that had acted on that _cretin-stupid-idiotic_ mind of its own could stop burning where her skin had met his…

"I was told to ensure all the safety matters when it comes to the convicted. Am I allowed to stay as sentinel?" Ashura insisted, not losing his respectful tone but an edge of firmness peeking in his voice.

'_Ensure the safety matters when it comes to the convicted'?_

The young kunoichi's brain resumed full-concentration work mode at this phrase, discarding all the irrelevant (_futile_, she interiorly fumed) matters. So Ashura _was_ keeping an eye on Sasuke and herself. But his reaction towards the blonde Anbu revealed he didn't work on the council's account. He was more the neutral eye of the Senior Jounin council, preventing breaches from both the counselors _and_ the Hokage's side.

Kind of an ally, and kind of not.

The Godaime seemed to have taken the same thinking path, judging by the light frown marring her features and the hesitant gaze she cast on the Jounin.

"Very well," she finally decided, voice lashing out in a firm tone that bordered on a warning edge.

Tsunade then turned to the doors, and, with chakra-glowing hands, touched some of the encrypted symbols in a certain order. There was a dull clicking sound, before the Hokage actually reached for the knobs and opened the doors, revealing a large, dark room in which the Anbu swiftly ushered Sasuke.

The fox-masked man's stiff demeanor only betrayed his identity, making Sakura all the more convinced that it _was him_.

"Sakura, torch," the Godaime said curtly, engulfing herself in darkness as well.

As Sakura turned in order to comply with her master's order, she found herself being handed said object by the Jounin instead. As she took the torch from Ashura, he locked eyes with her, casting her a deep, eloquent gaze.

"Stop wasting time and go to Godaime-sama," he scowled gruffly. "Brat," he added with fake superiority, allowing a complicit smirk to adorn his lips for an ephemeral second then disappear in the whispering crackle of the flickering light, before finally turning his back to her and beginning his surveillance duties.

Sakura didn't even take the time to get indignant at being called a 'brat'; she took off, fiery determination burning through her. Seeping through his words, the young kunoichi had gotten the message Ashura had passed along to her.

_Do what you must. _

The room she had entered was a circular, glacial space with torches hung all around the stony, plain wall. Sakura scurried around the chilly room, lighting up torches as she heard the drawling creak of the doors closing up. She allowed herself a last glimpse of Ashura's resilient back (_More of an ally than not_, she mused, begrudgingly taking comfort in that idea), before finally turning to the Anbu, pulse erratic. She was faced with his back as she saw him perform a complex set of seals and concentrate chakra in his palms, before placing his hands on the doors, which faintly glowed with blue-hued light before returning to their original dark tint, all the while keeping an eye on Sasuke who was standing nearby, his stance _frozen-rigid-absent_. Only after accomplishing that task did the Anbu turn and take off his mask, revealing the face of a dear friend, wearing a familiar smile that has also become sincere.

"Sai," she acknowledged in a murmur, trying to stifle the emotion in her voice, in vain.

"Hello, Ugly," he greeted, his voice slightly less bland, slightly warmer than last time she'd heard it.

A rush of intricate, ardent emotions washed over her as her heartbeat became even more accelerated, exhilarated by a mix of relief, nostalgia and apprehension. She took hesitant steps towards him, uncertainty beating along the joy of a belated reunion burdened by the weight of all that had happened, all the suspicion and conviction and hurt she'd endured to that very moment. But here he was, someone she could trust and entrust her life and belief to, someone she actually loved with neither complications nor compromise. It was Sai, a dear, dear friend, a faithful companion, _a Team 7 member through and through_. She hadn't noticed that she had gradually picked up the pace as the distance separating them decreased, until she finally got to him and crushed his torso in a fierce hug.

Sai smelled of _sweat-leaves-dew-ink_. He smelled of past times, broken times, halcyon times. Hugging him appeased her as if she was traveling with her team again, through the cryptic midnight hours and the vacillating moments of dawn.

Sai's stance stiffened and he awkwardly patted her head, certainly mimicking what he had read about dealing with friendly hugs and comforting people. Sakura couldn't help but smile.

* * *

Sasuke blinked. He didn't know what had exactly happened before his eyes, but it seemed Sakura and the Anbu knew each other. They knew each other _fairly_ well, he rectified, taking in the way her hands held on tightly to the man, oddly ticked off by the familiarity between the two.

An intricate operation awaited them, one to which he would lose his family's legacy and power, maybe even _his life_. Abandoning the Sharingan to a village tainted with his clan's blood wasn't some meager, derisory task; the mere thought, incessantly assailing his mind, had turned his insides to molten lead indefinitely, his bitter blood pumping ice shards into his veins. His nerves had enough unrest as it was without people randomly hugging each other.

"Where did you disappear to these last weeks? Not a glimpse, not a call, not even a message to at least keep me off my worry," Sakura scolded, barely holding the accusation back in her tone, voice muffled in the Anbu's clothing.

"I'm Anbu, Ugly," Sai-or-whatever-his-name-was replied, unfazed, keeping that weird smile of his in place.

Sakura didn't react to being qualified of ugly by a self-satisfied jerk proud of his status as Anbu.

Sasuke arched a perplexed brow before pulling himself together. This didn't concern him in the least. He decided he disliked that bizarre smile nonetheless.

"Yamato-taichou is also Anbu. Doesn't mean he completely neglects his friends either," she pouted at him, _finally_ releasing him from her arms' grasp. Part of his mind he belatedly decided to ignore and shush noted that she had never shown such an expression in his presence, and that irritated him to no end, for some obscure reason.

"I…" Sai began, hesitantly eyeing the Godaime, who had already brought a heavy scroll out in the open, peering into it with intense scrutiny as Sakura and her friend reunited.

"Sai had been working undercover for us," Tsunade said with a categorical tone, ending the moment of affection she had permitted them.

Tsunade jerked her head to the doors with inquiring eyes, to which Sai responded with an affirmative nod.

"Can the jutsu be detected from the outside?" she asked, sharp amber eyes alit, and Sasuke knew she was referring to Ashura standing just outside the heavy doors.

"I doubt it," Sai answered, trading his smile for an expressionless face.

"How long till keen ears become able to hear us?" the Godaime inquired, putting down the scroll and inspecting the floor.

"Not much," the Anbu curtly replied.

"Soundproof technique?" Sakura queried, dubiously frowning, her eyes going back and forth between Sai and the Hokage.

Sai nodded, turning to Sasuke. Under further scrutiny, this man was familiar. The Anbu wore that same sugar-coated smile again, only it seemed much colder when addressed to him.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun," he greeted, tone bland, voice sounding disagreeably in Sasuke's ears. "I'm Sai…"

"My replacement," Sasuke interrupted tersely, finally replacing Sai's face in the rubble his memory was drowning in at that moment. Sakura's frown deepened as she glared at him; he chose to ignore that. Sai lost neither composure nor smile to the comment, and went on with his introduction as if Sasuke hadn't spoken. That man was definitely grating on his nerves.

"I'm a previous member of Team Kakashi. Let's be friends from now," Sai suggested. "Or perhaps I shouldn't want that," he added as an afterthought, not bothering to hide the accusation in his plain voice, "since you have the weird tendency to wish for your friends' death, going for the kill yourself sometimes."

"I don't want some counselors' lapdog as acquaintance either," Sasuke retorted, voice even but glacial, tension filling up the room as he slowly spoke his words.

"Enough," the Hokage disrupted with calm sternness, effectively shushing them, but Sasuke's opinion was set: that guy was to be disliked. Did he think he knew Sasuke's bond with Naruto, did he assume knowing Naruto himself better than Sasuke did? Did he even know what he was talking about? All about snide accusations thrown randomly, did he even bother to _know_?

"Sai has been collecting Intel on the council's side and the Root previous members," Tsunade carried on. "He's pretended to condemn my leniency when it came to Uchiha Sasuke, and so has been accepted into a very restricted circle of Anbu that are under the counselors' direct command."

"Can he be trusted?" Sasuke asked, interrupting the Godaime's explanation, which earned him a fierce glare from her menacing, falcon-like pupils, but it was Sakura who answered.

She had come in between him and the Anbu, something akin to fiery anger burning in her eyes.

"Sai is a member of Team Kakashi," she repeated, categorical and intransigent, indignant that the Anbu's loyalty could be questioned, and that only seemed to fuel Sasuke's anger. "Shishou," she then said, alerted, eyes widening as she turned to face the Hokage, "what do you mean by the 'counselors' direct command'?"

"The counselors have gathered adepts between the ranks of Anbu, and even some Jounin who don't like the way I'm managing the Uchiha crisis, or how I govern the village while we're at it," Tsunade responded. "They plan to gather enough manpower to put pressure on me so that I would step down from being Hokage and appoint someone to their liking, who would both preserve their secret and work on their account."

"Are they preparing for a coup d'état?" Sasuke asked, head throbbing with increasing tension and unconcealed ire.

"No," Sai answered laconically, gently pushing Sakura out of the way as he crouched, lightly tapping Sasuke's leg bindings with dexterous, chakra-charged fingers. "The counselors still wish for Konoha's well-being after all," he clarified as the bindings came down with a faint clicking noise and he proceeded to do the same to Sasuke's handcuffs. "They wouldn't do anything that would directly threaten the village."

Sasuke surreptitiously massaged his wrists as the chains fell to the ground with a somber clatter. His chakra running freely within him may have made him feel mildly better, but the dark mix of cold resentment, anger and apprehension still clawed at his mind, his insides weighing heavily on him.

"The council is normally a system used to prevent the Hokage from becoming a power-lust monster," Tsunade explained as she summoned brushes and ink from the large, spread-out scroll. "They act as moderators, limiting the Hokage's powers to protect the village from the arrogance that might come with boundless authority. But these two have fallen for the trap they're supposed to guard the Hokage from, becoming a system too fascinated by its own power to distinguish the village's good from its own anymore."

The Godaime paused, suspending her thorough inspection of the scroll to cast Sasuke a _profound-eloquent-steady-_**powerful** gaze, before continuing.

"Thus, a system that can no longer be wished for," she finally asserted, words dark and heavy and unyielding.

Silence held its fickle breath as wavering shards of unsteady torches' light reflected off the Hokage's intimidating amber eyes, making them look like liquid fire. The throbbing in Sasuke's head vaguely receded as the lid within him restraining his darkness slightly creaked, causing grim, jet-black hatred to slowly seep through and gradually, perniciously taint some of his cells with the Avenger's raw instinct to seek justice in bloodshed.

If the Hokage meant what he thought she did…He smirked.

"What are you getting at, Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked, eyes narrowed but alarmed, words spelled distinctly as comprehension shakily dawned on her.

"It is no mere coincidence that Sai is the Anbu assisting us tonight," Tsunade declared, not taking her eyes off Sasuke. "The counselors had made it a point to send someone to ensure we sealed off your eyes, and even maybe fail to keep you alive, under the cover of sending professional 'help', that which I can't refuse without appearing suspicious in the eyes of the Senior Jounin. Therefore, Sai made sure to be the one chosen for that task."

Tsunade paused again, as though searching for the right way to voice her thoughts, and the silence that ensued triggered a rush of exhilarating anticipation within him.

_My-prey-my-prey-my-prey-my-prey _

"I guess I am offering you a deal, Uchiha," Tsunade declared, carefully studying him. "The seal we're going to apply to you is of a different nature. Instead of sealing off your eyes permanently, we're going to drastically limit the chakra that can be conveyed to them. This means that as long as you have that seal, you won't be able to summon the Sharingan, but your ability will still be intact. It's a much easier operation, and it is not irreversible."

_Finally-finally-finally-finally_

"In exchange, you're on your own," Tsunade continued, brows furrowed, voice holding somber, grave promises of danger that Sasuke welcomed as angelus bells calling for the restoration of the Uchihas' integrity. "You won't be hindered, but you won't be helped, won't be recognized. This conversation never happened," she added with a final tone.

The shiver of delight that run through his spine, when the words completely registered in his mind, was _hungry-raw-feral_.

_Finally-finally-finally, I'll get to hunt _**my prey.**

His smirk widened, pulse slowed down, _calm-composed-alert_, righteous bloodlust running through his veins. The Avenger's cold laugh resounded within him, wisps of predatory urges taking over him.

"Sasuke!"

Sakura's alarmed voice tore through the silence, sealing the lid within him again, the Avenger reluctantly recoiling to the back of his mind, not completely chased away but not controlling his grim, deadly impulse any longer. It was as though her shocked intonation had snapped him awake of some trance. The desire to avenge his clan, parents and brother was still there, but without him being a creature born from hatred and dominated by the mere instinct to kill in order to numb the pain and justify his existence.

Sasuke glanced at her, and found horrified viridian pupils looking back at him. She had drawn closer to him, and he could see startled worry displayed all over her features.

_Don't make a face like that. _

But part of him mildly relished in the fact that her worry was _for his sake_. Not for anyone else (_not for Sai_) but him. Like old times.

When he realized it, he turned away his gaze, mortified by these feelings and terrified to show any.

"Shishou," Sakura called out, relief timidly peeking in her tone, "you do realize that I'm in this too."

"And this is why you were allowed to hear everything," Tsunade said, as though it was evident.

But it wasn't. Why _the hell_ would Sakura be caught into something as twisted and somber as this? This wasn't a matter to take lightly, this was _revenge_. There would be _blood_. Didn't the Hokage see? The word _danger_ painfully pounded in his nerves as he decided that Sakura wouldn't partake in any of this. Not if he could help it.

"No," Sasuke firmly said.

Sakura rolled her eyes, as though she had expected that reaction, while the Godaime didn't even glance at him, but he was set on refusing this. What were they playing at? Sakura just _couldn't_ be part of this. He glared at the Hokage, irritation creeping up on him.

"Leave her out of it," Sasuke growled.

"Watch your tone, Uchiha," Tsunade retaliated with the same menacing voice. "Sakura's punishment…"

"Punishment?" Sasuke interjected.

"You didn't think I'd make it unpunished with the stunt I've pulled on the counselors, now, did you?" Sakura said with a proud smirk.

"Sakura isn't to leave the village at all costs," Tsunade elaborated, glaring at him for being interrupted twice. "Neither is she allowed any information about any mission, past or present. Access to archive is strictly forbidden to her, missions are out of the question, and, finally, she's been appointed as your guardian during that probation period, which means you two aren't going to separate anytime soon. So, no, Uchiha, I _cannot_ leave her out of this, and I most certainly shall not."

Sakura hadn't made it unscathed. Sasuke's mouth felt dry, something akin to guilt tasting on his tongue. She didn't make it intact, and they wanted to put her in the midst of an intern, intense, potent war of interests? He wouldn't allow that. He wouldn't allow her to completely throw herself away for his sake.

"No," he reiterated, fiercely shaking his head. _You don't have to taint yourself for _**my**_ battle._

"Sasuke," Sakura began, exceeded, "you can't do this alone."

"I can," he snapped back. "I will."

"I won't let you," Sakura retorted, brows knit tightly together in obstinacy.

"This is **my** revenge," Sasuke finally bellowed, frustrated and irked and worried (yes, _he was worried_, he might as well acknowledge that, although he'd never admit it). "_This is none of your business_."

Sakura's eyes turned from green flames to iced pools of troubled water, face stony and unreadable.

_Damn…_

That wasn't…He didn't want to say it like that. And maybe a little voice at the back of his mind was a _tiny-itsy-bitsy _regretful, but he did not care. As long as it got her off his (_harm's_) way…

"Strike two, Sasuke-kun," Sai chimed, getting his brush off his pouch. "If I were you, I'd carefully choose my next words. Ugly's temper is legendary."

Sasuke made a menacing back throat sound, mustering his most intimidating glare, the 'ugly' epithet getting all the more on his nerves.

"Enough," Tsunade intervened again. "We don't have time for petty fights. Uchiha Sasuke, whether you like it or not, Sakura has become involved the moment she chose to betroth herself to you. This perspective doesn't enchant me, but there are some things even the Hokage can't help."

The doors chose that crucial moment to faintly glow again, and the Hokage suddenly fell silent, arching a brow and looking quizzically at Sai, who merely nodded. The Hokage then turned to them, casting them a grave and eloquent gaze, mutely conveying her last words to them. _Not another word_, Sasuke could read on her lips. She then took hold of her own brush, and began tracing symbols in a definite order and in a circular pattern, the ink glistening eerily in the dim-lit room.

"I need help here, Sai," the Godaime said. "Let Sakura prepare him for the sealing."

Sakura had been facing away from him this whole time, her eyes shielded by roseate tresses that took reddish hues in the torches' light, but he clearly saw her purse her lips before turning reluctantly to him. She delayed eye-contact by rummaging into her kunai pouch, taking out a pair of scissors, before he could actually take a look at her. Sasuke had noticed it before, but it was blatant now, as he took in her impassive face: it seemed like Sakura had learned to conceal her emotions. _Finally acting as a shinobi_, was what his mind said, but without great conviction, maybe even with a little regret.

This wasn't a Sakura-thing to do. Pouting at someone for not getting in touch was. Hugging someone she hadn't seen for long was.

And it suddenly clicked in his mind, the reason why Sakura's familiarity with Sai irked him so much. It was because she had acted like the Sakura he'd known around the Anbu, easily falling back to her chatty, caring self, when she hadn't with _him_. He'd only recognized his Sakura when she freely interacted with another. It meant that she hadn't completely changed, but was unwilling to show _him_ those buried sides of herself, those sides that _had belonged to him first_.

"I'll have to cut your hair a little, since it can get in the way of chakra-channeling," she affirmed, reverting to professional, medic speech. Distancing herself again. "Sit."

"Cutting hair?" he repeated, still struggling to snap out of thoughts that proved rather possessive, thus rather disconcerting.

"Don't tell me you're attached to your bangs?" she said, disbelievingly arching a brow at him. "You _do_ need to cut down that rat's nest. Might as well do it now."

"Hn."

As Sasuke sat cross-legged on the concrete, he felt her kneel behind him. Then, hesitant, slender fingers made their way into his hair, and Sasuke unconsciously closed his eyes, everything ceasing to exist but her touch. This wasn't the first time Sakura touched his hair (_she had to when he had chained her to him_, he recalled, the memory making his mouth go dry as blood pounded in his ears), but he didn't know why he was so conscious of her fingers intertwining with his locks this time. It wasn't anything dislikable. On the contrary, it was…appeasing.

Silence reigned, only interrupted by the faint clicking noise of scissors and the muted crackling of flames, until Sakura's grip on his locks suddenly turned fierce, her hand fisting in his hair.

"_None of my business_? Are you _fucking shitting me_?" she finally growled in a voice low enough only for him to hear. "This is all but _none of my business_. You can't leave me out of it."

"This is my fight. You don't have to get involved," he replied with gritted teeth as Sakura's grip hardened, but he was privately relieved that she had dropped the emotionless mask to let her anger roam free. That may not have been a Sakura-thing to do, but it was how she'd worked with him so far. It was also the only times she truly showed herself to him, and he took relief in it not changing anytime soon.

"When will you understand that I'm not a burden that'll get in the way anymore?" she whispered, and Sasuke felt a pang, somewhere in his lungs, that had nothing to do with his own feelings. It was the throb of Sakura's hurt, sore and raw and scalding.

"What…What burden…What way," he began, finally realizing why she'd reacted like she did. Sakura had taken his refusal as belittlement of her skills, as a direct attaint to her as a shinobi, her pride getting wounded in the process.

"You need my help," she carried on, not noticing or ignoring his words. "You don't know how the village works, you don't know how you could get to them, you don't know _shit_. Don't go patronizing me and cast me off. I'm not weak."

That was enough. Things had to be settled. He needed to do something about this, and she seriously needed to hear him out.

His hand closed around her wrist (_her heart was beating fast but not unsteadily_), and he firmly tugged her hand off his hair, but without harshness, just enough for him to turn his head and lock his eyes with hers.

"I know you're not," he asserted. "That's never been the point."

"Then what is?" Sakura inquired, not shaking his hand off hers, eyes viridian and bare and honest, speaking of _doubt-resentment-insecurity_. Her heartbeat was distracting, and he ought to let go, but the voice at the back of his mind pointed out that this was the most peaceful he'd felt that night. Sasuke interiorly sighed. Everything was so confusing, _so confusing_…Tonight, only tonight, would he indulge in a brittle moment of appeasement, letting that sturdy heartbeat soothe him. He wouldn't let go of that hand.

"You're not getting hurt on my behalf," he finally let out, and it came out as a low, threatening rumble, eyes hard as he, at last, freed her wrist from his hold.

_Damn._

He hadn't been able to hold the warning and menace back in his voice. But he couldn't have done it any other way. Because he was Uchiha Sasuke, and he had strayed far too long away from the human path to clearly remember how to voice worry other than in a wounded dogs' angered snarls.

Sakura's eyes widened, green orbs faintly smoldering back to life, astonishment manifestly etched in her features. Embarrassment made his blood rush in alarm to his ears, and he faced away from her again, pressure pounding uneasily at his temples.

_Stupid woman_, he thought, aggravated at himself for letting anything out in the open. Couldn't she have figured it out for herself? How _an-noy-ying_.

"You're actually worried about me," Sakura murmured disbelievingly, not asking but rather trying to register the fact in her mind.

A pregnant pause ensued, and Sasuke began to regret saying anything. The scissors suddenly went at work once more, and he felt fingers in his hair again, only this time caressing his scalp with a kinder manner.

"I'm already a target to them, Sasuke," she finally said, her murmur losing any hint of harshness. "Why do you think they have appointed me as your guardian? It's so that they can get rid of us _together_. I'm as much a liability to them as yourself."

Sasuke remained silent, pondering on her words. She took it as a chance to carry on, her voice a gentle whisper.

"My punishment aims at isolating me from the others, so that I won't get any assistance from anyone, including shishou. _Especially_ from shishou, since her position forbids her to get involved in any way possible. And making me your guardian is a blatant way to order the Root to hunt me down as well. I've become their enemy the moment I've chosen to be on your side. Neither of us can go back."

"I can't guarantee your safety," he muttered.

"And I'm not asking for your protection," she calmly replied. "I only need you to trust me."

Fragile silence ensued. Sasuke realized that the scissors had stopped their obstinate clicking while Sakura's fingers were still entwined with his locks, and he didn't mind prolonging the ticklish feeling it brought him.

"You can rely on me. Actually, you must, since we'll be fighting together from now on."

She paused, before adding with a faint chuckle that would have peeved him to no end if not for her delicate, _almost-almost-almost_ fond tone:

"You're stupid."

"And you're annoying," he retaliated, not quite angry with her anymore.

_Annoying and stubborn. Your responsibility for sticking with me. _

"Fair enough," she replied, her voice betraying warmth as her hand left his hair (and he wouldn't have minded if she'd let it there a little longer-he _wouldn't have minded-wouldn't have minded_-).

He heard her shuffle and she swiftly changed her position, kneeling before him in an instant. His quizzical eyes didn't miss the shadow of a smile timidly tugging her lips upwards.

"Fringe," she curtly answered his mute interrogation. "Really, you'd look ridiculous with such long bangs on the front and short hair on the back," she added, lightly tugging at said bangs, and if he growled at her for doing so, it was because she seemed _so damn_ amused, not because he disliked it.

As scissors resumed their monotonous clatter, Sasuke thought that maybe, maybe he _kindofsortof_ liked when Sakura acted that way, amused and teasing and alit with slivers of shy hope.

Maybe he liked the way her fingers strayed in his tangle of dark hair, deft and warm and soothing.

Maybe, maybe it wasn't a bad thing that she was to never separate from him after all. Even if she wanted to. Even if it cost her.

Maybe part of him took guilty reassurance in that fact and avidly welcomed her determination to stand by his side.

"All done," she said, hand smoothing his hair a moment longer than necessary, without him resenting her for that. He locked eyes with hers, and something in her viridian pupils made his insides coil and lighten and flutter, the intensity of it charging his whole body in electric fever.

"Are you done whispering sweet nothings to each other yet?" the Godaime grumpily interjected, tearing whatever was settling between them to shreds.

"Was that what they were doing?" Sai inquired, an edge of scientific interest in his voice. "I read in a book that it was a prelude to intimate physical contact. Never thought Ugly was that bold."

"Sai!" Sakura yelped, quickly scrambling to her feet.

They had both averted their eyes from each other the moment the Hokage's voice had shattered the charged silence, but Sasuke hadn't missed the red tinge that had expanded over Sakura's cheeks. His own ears had been taken over by a blistering blood rush, and nothing appealed to him more at the moment than wring the neck of **that bastard**.

"You'll have to take your shirt off, Uchiha," Tsunade informed him with barely-concealed amusement. Damn her.

Sakura crouched on the Hokage's right, after ruthlessly smacking Sai's head. The three of them sat in a trigram pattern, surrounding the circle of drawn symbols. Tsunade silently pointed to the center of the circle, where chains still ominously glistened, and Sasuke understood that he was fated to undergo the sealing right there.

The concrete bit coldly at his bare back. Sakura took out a scalpel from her kunai pouch and made a small incision on his wrist, collecting some of his blood and blended it with the ink. She then handed the ink to Sai, who used it to draw some symbols on his chest. As the brush adroitly glided across his skin and the Hokage began to perform some seals with chakra-charged hands, Sasuke absently noted that Sakura, still blushing slightly, had healed the little graze she'd slit herself with green-haloed fingers.

"Uchiha, we're going to perform a jutsu that'll act as anesthetic," Tsunade informed. "It'll make your cells 'go to sleep', so to speak."

"Is it necessary?" Sasuke queried, suspiciously eyeing Sai, the thought of being unconscious while two medics and an Anbu performed God knew what to his body made him uneasy, the perspective of losing control so completely not appealing to him in the least.

"This operation being easier to the one previously planned doesn't make it any easy by itself," Tsunade replied, shaking her head. "It may get painful at some point, and you might have some pain-induced spasm that'll get our chakra channeling messed up. You do wish to avoid spending the rest of your life blind or crippled, don't you?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth. He _abhorred_ giving himself up to _anyone_.

The dim light suddenly reflected off pink tresses, clouding his vision with reddish-hued locks.

Aah. That might not be entirely true.

He directed his eyes at Sakura. Taking in the dull green eyes he'd learned to associate with her, he realized that there was someone he would actually entrust himself to.

Such an annoying woman, forcing him to trust her like she did…

"You'll have to take responsibility," he said, voice low and grim, bordering on a threat. "You're not to leave."

Sakura's expression didn't falter, but her gaze softened, dull green eyes vaguely smoldering.

"I know," she curtly responded, and it was enough, because he had already gotten his answer in her eloquent viridian pupils.

Sasuke then felt the Hokage's palms close in on either side of his head. Relief washed over him as he realized that his last vision before smoothly drifting away from consciousness would be green, endless, softly ablaze green.

For the first time, since as long as he could remember, Uchiha Sasuke relaxed, completely surrendering himself.

* * *

"Prepare yourselves. We're beginning," Tsunade announced sternly.

Before completely diving into professional, medic mode, the Hokage allowed herself a last glance to her pupil. Sakura was performing a series of seals, eyebrows tightly knit in deep concentration.

There was no remnant of that moment she'd shared with Sasuke mere instants ago. Come to think of it, it had been a surreal experience. Tsunade hadn't even been irritated at being so blatantly ignored, when it seemed both Sakura and Sasuke had somehow cut themselves from the rest of the world, creating a bubble of which access was strictly restricted to the two of them. It was as though every gesture, every word, every glance held a whole other meaning when it came to them.

"_You'll have to take responsibility. You're not to leave."_ That guy had spat that like some dreadful warning, curt and cold, and she had expected her pupil to smack the living daylights out of him, her temper flaring at once as usual. And what did said pupil do?

"_I know."_ With a voice that sounded reassuring and calm and gentle, almost tender…

_They are too much. _

And there was something else…When she'd made it clear that his revenge wouldn't be hindered, the Uchiha's aura had drastically changed, bloodlust tangible in the undetectable tension of every fiber of his anticipating muscles, wisps of madness portentously hovering around him, until the moment Sakura had called out his name. He had then instantly reverted back to his aloof, expressionless self. Tsunade knew that revenge was a risky business, as destructive as it is self-lacerating; one could easily lose themselves in it, drowning in an endless loop of annihilation and emptiness, until they turn insane. These counselors, by appointing Sakura as Sasuke's guardian, had ironically saved him from that. As long as she was by his side, the Uchiha would be able to reach himself once more, in that isolated world of theirs.

A soft voice at the back of Tsunade's mind absently mused that the only person who had been capable to breach the wall of that bubble and forcefully include himself was now gone, and his bright and undying memory was dangling somewhere in the tension between them, his absence bridging their crumbling existences rather than coming in between.

Tsunade vaguely wondered if the roseate-haired medic was aware of how the whole thing looked, how confusing and intimidating it seemed, with their world being so hermetic and exclusive. Most certainly not, she finally concluded, seeing as Sakura was completely composed and focused. Tsunade belatedly realized that an anticipating smirk had been adorning her lips for Kami knew how long.

This promised to get quite interesting in the long run.

* * *

**Author's final note (as usual):** This chapter was quite hard to finish, since writing Sai proved quite challenging. Figuring out his interactions with Sasuke was such a jigsaw puzzle.

On another note: Sakura cherishes Sai as a friend only. I really hope that it's shown in my writing, don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that there's potential for any triangle in this story.

Finally, I'm sorry I'm taking so long between updates, but RL is a bitch (really). I may not be able to answer to every review due to lack of time, but be sure that I cherish any and every one of them.

See you soon, guys (as soon as RL makes it possible, anyway).


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note:** Hi! Remember me? Go back a little in your memory. Still a little. A little more. What, it's painful? I haven't been that long away, now, right? (fake innocent smile).

I am truly, truly sorry about that. But, hey, looong chapter to make amends! (*is shot*)

* * *

**Disclaimer:** At this point, even I would have done a better job at writing Naruto. Had I _owned_ it.

**Chapter 10:** The Outside

Sakura's vision couldn't be considered as clear when it was finally over and the doors opened up, letting in a couple of medics with a stretcher to carry the still unconscious Sasuke to a more suitable room, regarding the care he was to be provided. The sealing had been _long-fastidious-draining_, leaving her with rather wobbly feet, her chakra reserves still slowly and difficultly recuperating from binding Sasuke to herself and just barely surviving this delicate an operation, which had required incredible precision and focus. Tsunade ruthlessly barked her orders at the medics, stomping out of the room with vivacity, sign that she was tired of all this and was most likely itching for some sake, and Sakura couldn't help but admire the seemingly endless stamina of her master. Part of her mind which wasn't lightly buzzing faintly wondered where on earth the Hokage could store so much energy. She herself was utterly and completely _exhausted_.

Sakura leaned on the wall, the hustle around her vaguely registering around her. She needed a breather. How long had they spent in that room, restricting Sasuke's chakra pathways to his eyes?

A shadow suddenly obscured her vision, and it took her some time to discern Ashura's features.

"You alright, kiddo?" the Jounin asked gruffly.

"Best I've ever been," Sakura replied ironically. "'Kiddo'?" she added, mischievous. "Was that some affectionate epithet, back in your century?"

Ashura stifled a chuckle, 'hmph'-ing amusedly as his hazel pupils shrewdly smiled. _His eyes are so young_, she absently noted, _so young and so vivacious_. Such a rare thing for a shinobi, especially a ninja his age, who had had a lifetime of loss and horror and blood. And Sakura couldn't help but think, with a pang of numb hurt, that Naruto would have surely grown into someone with eyes like these, cerulean young and laughing eyes. A nostalgic smile adorned her lips. She realized that the throb of his absence wasn't as stabbing and vivid as it had been, and that threw her off, scaring her.

"Still as respectful as ever," Ashura commented, arching a brow at her without disapproval.

"Why would the council have a soft spot for me, otherwise?" she retaliated, theatrically rolling her eyes.

The Jounin let out a low chuckle at that, taking her aback. This was so bizarre. She was having a light-hearted conversation with a man who wouldn't hesitate to break her skull, were she to be deemed dangerous. And still, she couldn't find it in herself to chase the feeling of security Ashura brought out in her.

"Seems like the brat is still alive," Ashura noted as the medics were slowly making out their way out of the sealing room in regards to the unconscious patient lying in the stretcher they were carrying. "One out of thirteen, approximately seven percent success rate…The Godaime really _is_ something," he added with unconcealed amazement.

It took Sakura some time to make sense of the Jounin's awed intonation. She had completely forgotten that Ashura, and everyone else for that matter, still believed that the sealing the Hokage, Sai and she performed had been the one decided upon by the counselors, and she felt grateful to the Senior Jounin for involuntarily reminding her. In her fatigued state, she might just have blurted out something she wasn't supposed to. Sakura internally scolded herself: she couldn't afford to let her guard down just yet.

"Get off that wall, kiddo," Ashura advised, face expressionless but a timid edge of gentleness peaking behind the stern voice. "Too soon to leave his side."

Sakura's consciousness was too numbed, the blank mist surrounding her brain was too thick for her to get surprised at his words. Her heart nonetheless swelled with a surge of honest gratitude.

"Thank you," she said, the bare, clear, frank words escaping her mouth before she could stop them, voice true and sincere.

Her unexpected gratefulness seemed to take the Jounin aback, for he stayed silent, features unreadable but eyes alit with warmth, casting her a softened gaze. The moment was brittle and clear and precious, too human to survive out in the open in their harsh shinobi world more than the frail instant of a flame's crackle. It was briskly lost to Sai's professional, clear-cut tone, shards of thankful sympathy wistfully fading out in the eerie dance of swaying shadows.

"Haruno-san, you might want to come with us."

Sai had called her Haruno-san.

_Sai_ had called _her_ **Haruno-san**.

Sakura had to bite her lip hard so as to stifle the laughter that was threatening to erupt from her. She evidently knew that Sai had to keep up appearances, in order not to induce any kind of a doubt into anyone, especially Ashura, who'd already proven to be shrewd, but that didn't stop the whole thing of being so completely absurd that it actually got humorous. The young kunoichi also suspected that all the tension that had accumulated in her trite muscles and her painfully pounding nerves wanted nothing more than to be evacuated in a nervous laughter fit.

_Pull yourself, together, _**dammit**.

Sakura stiffly nodded, finally detaching herself from the cool contact with the wall. She was so tired, so tired…But Ashura was right: Sasuke wasn't out of danger just yet. They were still in the South Wing, still in the enemy's territory.

Sakura gritted her teeth, limbs painfully tense again. She didn't hate the South Wing; she actually **abhorred**it.

"Where are you taking the patient?" Tsunade howled at the medics, who took awkward steps back due to the stretcher they were carrying as they cowered under the Hokage's ferocious glare.

"We were ordered to get him to room 1408," one of them timidly replied, pure terror etched in his apprehensive features.

The back of Sakura's throat gave way to a hostile growl. 1408, why, that was merely the only room underground that the medics still used there, adjacent to the Anbu staff room. Surely the nicest way to ensure Sasuke wouldn't live up to see the morrow.

Sakura was far too drained for her temper to flare like it usually does, but deep in her muscles dark flames of resentment set ablaze every throbbing connection to her brain. Those counselors…She was going to wring those frail old necks of theirs.

Too engrossed in her throttling fantasies, Sakura only belatedly noticed that an ominous silence had settled in the dimly-lit corridor.

_Uh-oh. _

She took in Tsunade's livid features, only then discerning the blood-shot amber pupils of her master. Blood-shot eyes. Slight trembling settled in the Godaime's fingers. Jaw clenched and hard, its muscles salient.

_How long had it been since the last time she'd taken a sip of sake?_ Sakura wondered as she took in the heavy signs of withdrawal, part of her feeling almost sorry for the medics who would have to take on full frontal the Hokage's dreadful wrath.

All was silent for a faint moment, as the terrified medics tried to surreptitiously edge away from the seething woman. But it was too late, far too late.

There was a thunderous sound as the Hokage's fist violently buried itself in the wall, causing a shockwave so brutal Sakura felt the ground mildly shake under her feet.

The medic that had spoken had turned a sickly shade of green, beads of sweat faintly shining on his forehead, while the hands of the other began to feverishly shake. Really, at this point, as someone who had, in multiple occasions, witnessed Tsunade-sama's ire first-handedly, Sakura just plain pitied the poor men.

When Tsunade spoke, her voice wasn't exactly loud, but dripping with deadliness.

"Upstairs. First free room," she choked out, Death itself displayed in her infuriated, widened eyes. "Before I wring both your necks."

_Seems like I'm not the only one obsessing over murder through strangulation…_

Fear must have paralyzed the medics, since they seemed pathetically unable to move their limbs. Which only fueled the Godaime's fury.

"Out. Of. My. Sight. NOW," she bellowed, prompting an awkward stampede from the frightened medics that would have been comical, had they not been carrying Sasuke.

"Careful!" Sakura exclaimed, immediately regretting her outburst, for it had gotten Tsunade off the medics' case, and into _theirs_.

Sakura gulped as her master's left eye twitched. This was getting worse.

Ashura swiftly bowed, mumbling excuses about important matters and humbly asking to take his leave. When the Godaime remained silent, he began a smooth retreat, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. Sai must have taken this as his cue to leave for he slowly drew back, not noticing or ignoring Sakura's imploring eyes and silent pleas (_Please-don't-leave-me-alone-with-her_), and got swallowed up by the shadows from where he appeared in the first place.

_Traitor._

"And _what exactly_ do you think you're doing?" The Godaime's voice may have been hoarse from fatigue and long hours of forced muteness, but her tone stayed as scalding as acid.

"I-err-I-" Sakura stammered, praying to whatever force up there to let her see the sunlight again.

"FOLLOW THEM IMMEDIATELY!"

The young medic didn't need to be told twice. She scurried off as hastily as she could, behind the medics and out of the Hokage's reach. As she reached the stairs, she heard Tsunade stomping her way in the tunnel, most probably to room 1408 so that she may assess the trap the council was pulling them to. Sakura hoped she'd find a secret stash of sake there, or at least some oblivious Anbu on guard to pummel so as to blow off some steam.

She swiftly caught up with the medics, who wordlessly let her lead the way, visibly relieved to shake off the responsibility of getting Sasuke anywhere on someone else's shoulders, who'd have to take on the full horror of her master's alcohol-withdrawal fury if anything went bad. The poor men were obviously scarred for life, and Sakura felt guilty amusement tug her lips upwards.

But her smile was short-lived as they treaded the silent, pressured hallways of the South Wing, and her lips settled in a thin, tense line. Her feet came to an uneasy stop before the first room of which door wasn't closed, but slightly ajar. Her hand on the doorknob, a rush of adrenaline cleared some of the fog coating her mind as her blood slightly pounded in her ears. She knew she shouldn't waste any more time, should just open the damn door, see if unoccupied and act accordingly. But hesitation got the better of her as memories of the first time she ever walked through the bland corridors of the South Wing flooded her mind.

_The flint, haggard eyes on the ghastly, emaciated face. The fresh bandage for the new missing limb, and the hardened, cauterized stump marking the old. And the silence, the deafening silence of this wounded, broken man and the shadows flanking his bedsides, their Anbu masks austere and dreadful._

"Sakura, just open…" began a soft voice as slender fingers closer around her wrist.

Her instincts, chafed raw by the constant sense of dread and danger of the last days, kicked in before she could register and place the voice, although she vaguely knew it to be familiar. In curt, swift, almost automatic movements of which dexterity surprised even her (_wasn't she supposedly exhausted?_ the minute part of her brain still working wondered), she twisted the assailant wrist with her left hand, faintly registering the surprised yelp subsequently resulting from her attack, as she tore away her right hand free. Then, numbly, fleetly, deftly, feet strongly dug into the concrete for support, she yanked on the wrist still caught in her steel grasp, using the momentum to crash the opponent's front against the wall, her right hand reaching for their free arm and twisting it back so that both their arms dug into their back, their head turning sideways just in time to avoid full frontal head collision with the wall, their blond, long ponytail slashing across her face…

_Wait._

_Blond, long ponytail?_

"Are you out of your _freaking_ mind?" came a seething shrill that would have scared away the wildest bats.

"I-Ino?" Sakura stuttered, only then taking in her friend's features.

"No, the Sage of the Sixth Paths himself has taken over my body to open your goddamn door for you," Ino retorted, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Has your brain left that oversized forehead for rent? _Let me go already_," she urged when there was no notable reaction.

It seemed as though Sakura's whole cognitive system was at long last being propelled to work, the rusty gears of her brain striving to move and live and _think_, just _think_, _can't just anyone do the thinking in my place?_

No. _No-no-no_. She had left self-pity behind a long time ago, and that was no time for a relapse.

Realizing that she was still holding Ino against the wall, Sakura hastily let go, gingerly taking a step back as her friend glared daggers at her while surreptitiously massaging her wrists. It wasn't until that moment that she became dimly aware of the odd stares the medics were giving her. And it seemed Ino did as well.

"What are you gawking around for?" she howled in a decent impersonation of Tsunade. "_Get him in_. Begin the preparations," she added, opening the door wide to reveal the empty hospital bedroom.

As Ino shifted to see the scurrying medics in, the dent in the wall where her body had just been moments ago appeared in all its monstrous glory. It wasn't that blatant, but there it was.

_I could have bashed her head in. _

The realization dawning on her sent electric shivers throughout her body, down her spine, into her vey thoughts that started jumping and slashing all over her intellect, resounding painfully in her ears as the words tumbled over themselves, raced and whispered and asserted themselves as the deadliest accusation.

_I-could-have-bashed-her-head-in-could-have-bashed- her-head-in-could-have-bashed-her-head-in- _

"Owww!"

The pink-haired kunoichi couldn't stifle the miserable whimper of pain that escaped her lips just as she got smacked, very ruthlessly and vengefully so, by her dearest friend on the side of the head.

"What the hell was that for?" she cried, massaging her throbbing scalp.

"Oh good, you're awake. Couldn't tell from the idiotic drooling face you were making just now," Ino deadpanned. "Stop admiring your garish make-over of the hospital wall and get that bony and unattractive behind of yours moving."

As she said so, she took hold of Sakura's arm, unceremoniously ushering her inside the room where the medics were already busying themselves with setting up the patient's room, scurrying back and forth between the mattress where Sasuke lay, still unconscious, and the various needed equipment. Sakura's feet skittered to a clumsy halt on the right side of the bed where Ino swiftly left her before taking off again, placing herself at Sasuke's left just as one medic plugged an IV to his listless wrist, while the other was chaining his other arm with special chakra-binding handcuffs that were strongly welded in the metallic headboard.

The gears of her mind just couldn't shake off exhaustion's insidious rust, it seemed. Or perhaps Ino was right; her brain had disappeared, leaving only wisps of smoke and hazy thought train and _automated-blind-murderous_ reflexes to any physical touch. Dull, forlorn green eyes cast a stunned, circular gaze to the room, taking in the blank, sickly walls, the hard bed, the door where seals of binding and forbiddance smoldered darkly. Her brain then seemed to suddenly jolt to life, images of the past reborn from ashes Sakura had thought locked away where they couldn't haunt her, blending in with the present, until the boundary between present and memory blurred, and the scene came back to life again. Her first time within the South Wing. _Where the broken toys of the interrogation team get fixed_, Ino had told her, with a tone of faked, tense lightness that would come to belatedly shock the pinkette, whenever that damned memory seeped into her thoughts.

The man had been a double agent whose cover had blown during a mission, during which he had succeeded in getting two shinobi killed and a third crippled for life. Everyone had been after his blood. Still, Ibiki had wanted to know just how much the enemy knew about the village.

_He brought it on himself._

And so the interrogation had begun. Sakura had been on the verge of completing her apprenticeship under Tsunade when it had all happened. Her master had then urged her, as a final task, to look after that cunning, cold-blooded monster, as well as get to know the South Wing.

At first, Sakura had been indignant. Healing a traitor who had cost two men their lives, a third his legs? But then came the first time she got called upon. It was ironic how she could recall every blood drop on the white sheet as his arm bled profusely from where his hand had been, the dangling tendons, the silence as loud and terrible as a million cries, but just couldn't remember his face clearly. Just a pair of widened, dark eyes, and a thin line of a mouth, pursed and glistening with beads of sweat, but that was firmly, determinedly shut, never letting out a sound.

_Don't pity him. He deserves this. _

Sakura got called one more time, two more, five more. The man missed another hand, then an eye, then they almost lost him to a massive beating, then a foot. But one thing never changed. That heavy, horrifying silence that weighed each time a little more on Sakura's hands and conscience.

_Make it stop. Kami please. Anyone. Make it stop._

_Make it stop? I can't. He doesn't want to talk yet, and he's got frigging seals all over his memories so that we can't intrude his mind_, Ino had said, her eyes not meeting Sakura's.

_What if he does talk?_ Sakura had asked, dreading an answer she had been suspecting all along.

_We keep him some more. For the morale_, Ino had answered, eyes fully facing her that time, a strange smile turning her lips upwards.

_They'll keep him until they tear him apart completely. For the _**fucking**_ morale._

This was madness. A whole village turning a blind eye while human beings were getting healed…in order to be tortured to a slow, excruciating death, for the sake of…

_What? What is most important to us? What are we really? What kind of monsters have we become?_

_Just stop. Make it stop. Make-it-stop-make-it-stop-make-it-st-_

"SAKURA!"

The accusing eyes of the man melted into oblivion as the dark memories submitted to the present's supremacy, and Sakura's eyes took in the medics' uneasy expressions and Ino's for once stern face.

"Binding seals. So that exit is forbidden to him…" Ino began, explaining what she pointedly knew Sakura to have already learnt, the bland words uttered with such unusual firmness and scolding that they held a whole other meaning when directed to her. _Pull yourself together_.

"Unless accompanied by someone wearing the same seal," Sakura interrupted, the words tumbling uneasily from her hesitant lips, but still managing to get the message across. _Will do_.

Ino surreptitiously nodded, before barking more orders to the medics, who were to bind them.

"You too?" Sakura asked, arching a brow.

"Jealous?" Ino retorted with a devious smile, efficiently shutting her friend up.

Both men drew intricate symbols on each of the kunoichi's bare right arm, matching the seals they've drawn on Sasuke's. Then, they simultaneously made some hand seals, muttering their names as their hands swiftly formed each of them. As they finally whispered in unison the final "_tiger-boar-tiger_", they linked Sasuke's arms and the kunoichi's with their own, and Sakura felt a dull tickling spread through the seal embroidered on her skin when the medic's hand surged with chakra. The binding seal then came to life, alit and red, _glowering-illuminated-smoldering_, as if traced by burning embers, flickering briefly before suddenly disappearing altogether, leaving the skin as smooth and white as it had been moments ago.

"I keep saying that it not being visible is so not fair," Ino chirped, eyes glimmering and playful. "I would look so much cooler with a blazing tattoo."

One of the medics, a tired-looking man who was surely on the verge of retiring, wore such a dignified mask of righteous horror that Sakura had a hard time repressing her laughter. She couldn't, however, keep her lips from tugging upwards in an amused smile as she dismissed them. Or tried to, at least.

Both men shifted uneasily on their feet, not budging.

"This _will_ be all, _thank you_," Sakura repeated, the smile curdling on her face, tone a little more forceful.

Both men exchanged an eloquent glance that didn't go unnoticed. It was the younger one, a plain-faced man with a beak of a nose, who mustered enough courage to speak up.

"It's just that, Haruno-san, we were asked to bind ourselves to him too. And to guard him. Us. Together."

"How romantic", Ino quipped, though the smile adorning her face never reached her eyes, which had gone from mischievous, sunlit pools to iced waters.

"Are you insinuating that I am not to stay with my husband after he underwent a surgery that might have cost him his life?" Sakura asked, her voice never rising, but words sharp and dripping with threat.

The men seemed to have noticed that the temperature in the room had dropped drastically, without it being a defect from the central heating. The older man edged backwards ever-so-discreetly, but the younger one stayed still, his cheeks and enormous nose turning bright red however.

"That's not it. It's just…We were given orders, Haruno-san."

"It's _Uchiha-san_ now," Sakura rectified, irritated, voice still even but a real edge of anger palpable in it. "And who gave those orders, might I ask?"

"The…the counselors," the man answered, gulping with difficulty.

"Well, that comes as a surprise," Ino said, her voice still playful, yet her smile now dangerous, almost feral. "I didn't know the counselors had their say into the South Wing's affairs. Last time I checked, _Ibiki-san_ was in charge here. The very Ibiki-san who gave me strict orders not to let anyone, apart from Sakura here and myself, and I mean _anyone_, loiter around the Uchiha scion. He takes this case to heart, that he does, our Ibiki-san."

"Morino-san is…involved?" the man asked, the color suddenly draining from his face, which had turned a sickly white.

Ino's smile widened, a truly terrifying sight which made even Sakura feel queasy.

"Of course," Ino affirmed, leisurely closing in on them, like a cat teasing two weary mice. "But since you seem so _determined_, I can take you to him, to explain this little…predicament. Though he does have a - how do I phrase this? - ah yes, a _hard nut to crack_, and he doesn't like being interrupted, with his hands full, you understand?"

By then, the older medic had already reached and opened the door, when the other one seemed struck, incapable of either talking or running away, and utterly and completely pitiable.

"We do," the older man said in a gruff voice, striving to hide the fear transpiring into his every move. "We leave everything in your hands…"

"Are you sure?" Ino insisted, eyes alit with predatory glee, and the uneasiness within Sakura deepened. "We really should consult with him. I bet you'd give him a healthy break from the work he's doing…or even more _nuts_ to _crack_, who knows when it comes to him. I'd be ever so _glad_ to help you out…or him, depending on what course of action you choose. You wouldn't mind that, would you?"

_She's toying with them. And enjoying it._

"No. We don't, I mean," the younger man blabbered, suddenly regaining his ability to speak. "Don't want to bother him. Or you. Both of you. Any of you. Yamanaka-san, Haruno-san."

"It's ok, Tora, we're going," the other said, taking him by the arm and out of the room.

There was a pregnant pose. When Ino turned around at last, she was wearing her usual, playful smile.

"Tora? A mighty tiger he is indeed," she scoffed, before turning back to shut the door.

"I hate it when you do that," Sakura said, unable to keep the words to herself any longer.

Ino's shoulders imperceptibly stiffened, though she kept silent for a while, still facing the door.

"When I do what? Drive away nuisances?" she finally said, as she turned and leaned against the door, teasing smile still in place.

"No, when you play with people's minds."

"You would have preferred to knock them out of your way, like you did the last guard who stood between Sasuke and you, _Uchiha-san_?" Ino sneered, her lips displaying a full, mocking smirk.

At that, Sakura ignored the heat taking over her cheeks and neck. Well, tried to, at least.

"No, but I wouldn't have treated them like some toys I can fiddle with carelessly. It's like you completely forget that they are _human beings_," she retorted, the queasiness from before returning, turning her insides to lead and her words to daggers.

Ino's smirk dissolved, her lips forming a hard, thin line. That, Sakura didn't regret. Her friend's teasing smirk had begun to weird her out.

"Don't turn all high and mighty on me, Sakura," Ino growled, all pretense of mischievous merriment set aside.

"I'm being honest."

"No, you're being the cowardly trainee who couldn't - and still _can't_ - face the South Wing," Ino snarled, hands curled into fists at her side.

That struck too close to home. The flush spread to cover Sakura's whole face and neck, and any tact she was about to display was lost to the rush of indignant resentment that had taken over her.

"I'm not taking _that_ from the sociopathic bitch who manipulated the fears and dread of two inoffensive men."

Ino burst into a fit of humorless laughter, her eyes looking like glaciers catching fire.

"All hail _Uchiha_ Sakura-sama, defender of the ninja integrity, shinobi of the moral high ground," Ino snickered, mock-curtseying. "Aren't we getting lonely up there?"

Her best friend's leering - and the irritating way she kept on throwing _Uchiha_ to her face - only fueled Sakura's anger further, and whatever shred of self-control she still held onto withered away as she exploded.

"Don't go there with me, Ino. What you just did was gratuitous, and cruel, and _monstrous_. You were having _fun_ scaring them to death. You played them just for the heck of it, just to see two men – two _medics_, Ino, they're not even _warriors_, one of them is old enough to be your _grandfather_, for God's sake – piss their pants in fear of _you_. Keep at it and we'll soon have our hands full with the second coming of Orochimaru you're turning into, without a scrap of sanity left in you."

Sakura regretted her words as soon as she'd spat them, as soon as she'd spotted the fleet flicker of genuine hurt in Ino's eyes, before they turned back to still ponds of frosted turquoise. Silence hung its velvety veil of throbbing sentiments and accusing gazes between them, and there they were, strangers playing at being friends…and failing.

"You know what?" Ino said after a while, her voice dangerously calm. "You're right. I'm doing a harsh job, that I do _damn_ well, and I actually _like_ doing it. At least, I'm not afraid to face who I am and _what_ I am, Sakura, which isn't exactly your case, now, is it? You're still hesitating between living in the past, as the foolish little girl you were, turning a blind eye to what you don't like, and becoming the ninja you _ought_ to be. _Ninja_, Sakura. We're not samurai, who live and die for honor, we're shinobi. Human tools, who come together to achieve a sole purpose. You're letting too much of your emotions hold you back. If you think the council won't turn that to their advantage, if you think they'll act all fair and square, you're sorely mistaken. You better toughen up, and brace yourself for anything coming your way, or I'll have _my_ hands full with the second coming of Tsunade-sama _you_'ll become, with all the people you love gone because you couldn't protect them and you aimlessly wandering, unable to outrun your sorrow."

Sakura gaped, soundless words escaping her lips, closed her mouth, opened it before deciding against it again, not knowing what she was about to say anyway. All her precedent anger seemed to have receded suddenly, leaving only the pounding hurt Ino's words had left in their wake.

The silence stretched, deafening and heavy, as both turned away, facing away from each other, Sakura biting her lower lip, hands fiercely curled into fists at her sides, whereas Ino, still leaning on the door, crossed her arms at her chest, her gaze resting on the bed, and on the unconscious man lying on it.

Suddenly, the door swung open, and, if not for her honed reflexes, Ino would have ungraciously fallen backwards…at the Godaime's feet.

The Hokage stood in the doorway for a few moments, her sharp eyes going swiftly from Ino, who had paled considerably the moment she had realized just _who_ was at their door, to Sakura, to Sasuke lying unconscious on his bed, briefly assessing the situation. She then strode in, green cloak billowing after her, slamming the door shut, and went directly to Sasuke's side for a last check-up. If she had caught on the heavy atmosphere, she chose not to comment on it. For that, Sakura was grateful.

Tsunade checked his pulse, the IV plug, before setting green-chakra-charged hands on either side of Sasuke's bandaged face. A while passed before Sakura saw the entire body of her master stiffen. The Godaime slowly took off her hands, slowly, dramatically whirled around, _slowly-dramatically-threateningly _cracked the joints of her hands, then cast both girls such an ominous death sentence of a glare that Sakura could hear Ino's jumbled thoughts freezing all over, could feel the hair at the nape of her neck standing on edge, as the same ancestral survival instinct told them both that their end was near.

"Shi-shishou? I-is something wrong with Sa-Sasuke?" Sakura broke in a panicked stutter.

"Two professional medics –" Tsunade began in an even voice, blood-shot eyes afire.

"You mean, the other men, Tsunade-sama? We _kindasorta_ got rid of them, you see," Ino stammered, her voice an octave higher than normal, which was saying something.

There was an ominous pause, during which the Godaime didn't budge, nor talk, nor seem to breathe at all, as a matter of fact. Two veins had popped at her forehead however, and the sight of it made Sakura surreptitiously edge closer to Ino. It was a comforting thought to die together, whatever may have transpired between them moments ago.

And there came the explosion, so loud and fierce and alive that it seemed to shake Sakura's very bones.

"I MEAN BOTH OF YOU INCOMPETENT TWATS. TWO PROFESSIONAL MEDICS ATTENDING A PATIENT WHO'S STILL UNDER THE ANEASTHETIC JUTSU, AND NOT EVEN ONE OF YOUR RETARDED BRAINS THINKS TO CANCEL IT? WHAT WERE YOU WAITING FOR? HUH? WHAT _WERE_ YOU WAITING FOR?"

Not only was Sakura dumbfounded at her master's irate outburst, but she also felt terribly _stupid_. Sasuke's cells were still "asleep". They would stay that way until someone deactivated the jutsu. She had _meant_ to do it, only that incident with the medics had completely taken her mind off it.

If the Hokage hadn't done it, who knew when, or whether, Sakura would have remembered? There have been cases of jutsu going wrong and cells, having stayed dormant too long, not going back to their normal state and leaving the patient in a state of indefinite semi-coma.

_I could have done a cleaner job than the council. Me, his protector. _

Oh, the irony of it.

"Oh, my God," Sakura whispered, stricken by the realization.

"OH, WAIT UNTIL I'M DONE WITH YOU. _THEN_ YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO PRAY, YOU INEPT EYESORES."

As the Godaime was about to close in on them, going for the kill, whereas Sakura had already closed her eyes and braced herself for the worst, the two girls instinctively huddling closer, Ino spoke up, voice so shrill and hurried her words were barely understandable.

"Tsunade-sama, before you kill us, _please_, _there'ssomething__**Sai**__askedmeto__**giveyou**_."

The elderly woman paused, her eyes glaring daggers at them, in a _don't-you-think-I'm-postponing-your-excruciating-d eaths _way, as she silently motioned Ino to give her whatever Sai had deemed essential for her to have.

Ino took a parcel away from her kunai pouch, gingerly made a step forward and hastily dropped the item in Tsunade's hand, before scurrying back next to Sakura.

Tsunade weighed the thing, her face now more confused than angry. She tore the package open, revealing a bottle of average size. She slowly opened it, sniffed its content, before gobbling it all up in long, thirsty gulps.

When she was done, the Hokage blinked, swaying a little in place. She then staggered to the nearest chair, which was in the corner furthermost from the door, and slumped down in it, sighing contentedly, all of the anger that seemed to shake her moments ago seemingly drowned away.

A few moments of peaceful silence ensued and, before long, the Hokage, _almighty-deadly-ferocious_ Hokage, had begun snoring, fast asleep.

It took Ino and Sakura a while to realize they were out of danger for the time being. Sakura was the first to move, cautiously edging to where the bottle had rolled off, after falling from the Godaime's now-limp hand. She took it in and sniffed it, and her nostrils were instantly assailed by the stench of alcohol.

"Sake," she recognized.

She then looked back, towards Ino. They exchanged a quick glance, before clutching at their sides, striving to stifle the nervous laughter shaking them.

"Instawin for the sake," Ino blurted out between muffled giggles.

"Shut up, she may still awaken," Sakura heaved, her ribs about to shatter from containing her seemingly-inextinguishable mirth.

"Did you hear that _snoring_? Can't wake up even if we kicked her in the breasts," Ino replied.

The mental image was too disturbing, or perhaps the pent-up anxiety and exhaustion did play a role in it, but Sakura couldn't help herself after that. She erupted, laughing as loud as caution allowed, and it proved contagious, for Ino joined soon after.

Their hushed chortle carried on for a while, receding only to be further fueled by the Hokage's thunderous, content and oblivious snoring, until it gradually faded away, leaving them breathless and disoriented as to how to act with each other.

Silence stretched awkwardly between them, as they evaded one another's eyes, Sakura nervously fidgeting, guilt weighing heavily on her heart.

"Look, Ino," she began tentatively, not knowing _what_ to say exactly, only that she _had_ to say it.

"Forget it," Ino broke in with a dismissive gesture.

"No. I've been constantly on edge this past couple of days, and the exhaustion isn't helping either. I spoke like some self-righteous know-it-all."

"You mean like a pretentious bitch," Ino quipped, smiling again at long last.

"Don't push it," Sakura warned, yet unable not to smile back. "But I said things that were out of turn, things I didn't mean. I'm sorry."

Ino's eyes softened, though she remained silent for once.

"It's just…I'm worried that your work at the Anbu Interrogation Squad might take its toll on you on the long run…Take over your life, or change you in a way – ouch!" she yelped when Ino flicked her forehead playfully.

"Silly, you worry too much. My job isn't the issue here: I'm managing it like the badass I am, and I'm not changing anytime soon, not where it counts, at least," Ino assured, a genuine, heartfelt smile adorning her lips as Sakura gingerly massaged her forehead.

"Still, I meant some of what I said to you," the blonde carried on in a more serious tone, concern written all over her features.

"Please tell me it's not the part about the blazing tattoo," Sakura said in a vain attempt to avoid what was to come.

"No, Sakura, I'm serious," Ino insisted, a light frown now marring her lips.

_Uh-oh._

Ino being truly solemn about anything generally meant major trouble ahead.

"Those old folks aren't joking about it. They'll be coming at you in ways so low and twisted you'd better start expecting the worst."

"I know that already. I've had two days full of it, so I know –"

"No, you don't," Ino objected vehemently. "Sakura, _I_ know _you_. And sometimes, I think you're just too humane to be a ninja."

"_What?_" came Sakura's indignant reply when Ino's words sunk in, a little too loud, for the Hokage suddenly stopped snoring, moving ever-so-slightly, her eyes ominously fluttering.

Both girls froze, not daring even to breathe. The Hokage shuffled again, then went back to the serene symphony of sound sleep that her nostrils were playing.

The young kunoichi heaved a relieved sigh, before turning back to their conversation.

"Look," Ino said in a low but firm tone, "I'm not saying that you're a bad shinobi. I'm saying you're bad at dealing with your emotions. You had expected too much of what a shinobi life is like, and now that you're down to what it is, you're trying to bypass that. But you _can't_. Sakura, the minute you've stepped into these muddy waters, you've doomed yourself to _choose_. You can't hesitate any longer."

"I'm not," Sakura began in a higher voice than intended before being effectively hushed by her friend's alarmed frown, "_I'm not hesitating._"

"You're not wavering on your will to protect Sasuke, that is sure. But will you go anywhere this path leads you?"

"_Of course, I will._ I don't care what horrible things they've got in store for me."

"Sakura, you still don't understand. They'll want to isolate both of you, and then drive you against each other. They'll want to break you, using any little weakness you leave open for everyone to see. They might confine you to the South Wing and force you to heal men that were told to die screaming Sasuke's name, hoping _you_'ll end up killing him. They might, they _will_ use someone you hold dear against you. Drive Yamato-sensei into a corner. Take me into custody for the slightest mishap. Get Sai to tail you, and make you _know_ he does, and what's at stake if he were to fail them. I know you don't care what happens to you, but you care _too much_ for what might happen to us, and they _know_ that, and they'll use it. So you absolutely can't let that bring you down, ok? You _absolutely_ can't."

As she let her friend's words slowly, painfully sink in, Sakura realized how true everything Ino had said was, and how she had never considered any of it. _I didn't have time to stop and _think, she tried to justify, but it resounded hollowly, shallowly within her.

_Empty excuses_, the tiny voice at the back of her mind spat at her. _Sordid lies. You were just too afraid to envision any of it. Saving Sasuke was your own selfish wish and the thought of involving everyone in your crusade was just too unbearable, so you _ran_ away. _

"Sakura!" Ino urged in a strained whisper, taking her by the shoulders and giving a firm, pressing squeeze. "Stop it! Stop _spacing_ out and _get your shit together already, dammit!_" she went on, almost screaming, now radically shaking Sakura back and forth, dazed, hollowed, molten-lead-legged Sakura. "You can't protect everyone, so stop trying to shoulder everything on your own. Don't worry for us; the village needs us, the counselors don't really want to harm us, so we're relatively safe. Thus, whatever you hear, _do not waver_. Ultimately, _you_ are the target, not us. You're the one they want, and can _get in all impunity_, so you can't afford to go all mushy when it comes down to it. And, please, please, _please_, promise me that when push comes to shove, you _won't_ hesitate to dirty your hands, if need be."

Ino had stopped shaking her, but her eyes were wide, her dilated pupils ponds of swirling blue smoke. Her grip on Sakura was steely, so set and hard it actually hurt.

Seldom had she ever seen her friend in such a plain state of honest disarray, her methodically-composed façade of playful shrewdness _crumbling-broken-_**gone**.

"Ino," Sakura began, nervously licking her lips. She couldn't **think**, her heartbeat was just too erratic, her thoughts too unsteady, she was being shown too brutally what she had pointedly avoided since everything began.

"No shinobi can survive without _compromise_, Sakura. Naruto –"

"Don't bring him up," Sakura interjected, already resenting anything Ino had to say, already dreading the truth and reason there was in it. She was ashamed, so, so ashamed and powerless, and so unwilling to deal with any of it that she stubbornly reverted to the only feeling she could muster and master: anger.

"No, Sakura, I can't afford to be any more subtle than you deserve right now, with the village ready to go at war with itself. Naruto _fed_ you a saint-like image of shinobi, but _you can no longer cling to it_. You better be prepared to –"

"To _what_?" Sakura snarled, tearing herself from her friend's grasp. "Sneak in and cut their throats while they're sleeping? Lose all integrity?"

_Like you_, she refrained from adding, but the silent words still clung to the air between them, too loud for Ino, _perspicuous-shrewd-deadly_ Ino to miss.

She was being unfair, that she knew. Ino was right. She was _right-right-right_. But she was forcing her to face all that which repulsed her and _still_ was mandatory for her to go through and _do_. She was forcing her to accept her _choice_, because she had already chosen, the moment she had sealed Sasuke. And Sakura was horrified to discover that she had yet to make up her mind about what she was willing to give up.

"No." Ino's voice and face had softened; an endless affection could be perceived in both. "Just accept that ninja have a different meaning for it. So promise me," she added, pleading, gently caressing Sakura's cheek, "that you'll taint your hands in due time."

Ino's smile was sad and knowing, and suddenly Sakura was five again, with no protector, no one she could trust but that quirky, fierce, strong girl. She leaned her forehead on her best friend's shoulder, and all the things she had repressed out of pride, out of sense of duty, out of sheer force of will because the situation had required her to be strong and confident and unyielding, things she didn't dare even realize, things she couldn't share with anyone else, least of all the one she was doing it all for, came pouring out of her.

"I'm scared," she said softly.

"I know," Ino replied, her hand tenderly patting Sakura's head.

"I'm so tired already. And it's so infuriating."

"I know."

"I'm so ashamed of being like this," Sakura confessed in a tiny voice.

"Don't be," Ino answered firmly. "You've shown enough strength already."

Sakura smiled in her friend's shirt. Ino had always been that safe, safe place where she could drop her anchor every so often, when tides of dread, anxiety and doubt grew too intolerable to face alone.

_They know that_, she suddenly remembered, and her smile was washed away by angry waves of fear for her friend.

"You're in danger because of me," she said, only realizing the full horror of the situation after she had voiced it, each word tolling like a deathbell to her own ears.

"Sakura, don't begin with that."

Ino took her by the shoulders again, forcing her to make eye contact with her.

"I'm the heir to the frigging clan head. They can't just do with me as they please, you know. Plus I'm far too much for them to handle," she asserted, winking playfully, and Sakura could only smile, completely disarmed. "Promise me," she insisted.

Sakura hesitated. Tainting her hands in due time, what did it even _mean_?

_Just to what extent will I have to sink for you to be safe, Sasuke? _

She pointedly knew that killing the counselors, even though it was for the greater good of the village, counted as **murder**. This wasn't a mission, with a definite enemy. This was a vendetta, doubled with a crime, _for the greater good_. And what the greater good would require her to do, in due time, may yet remain unknown, still she apprehended it, painfully aware that it wouldn't come without sacrifices.

"I do," Sakura finally complied, earnest but not completely honest, still trying to hold on to the brittle belief that maybe, maybe everything would still turn out alright for everyone.

"Good," Ino sighed, retracting her hands, looking somewhat relieved even though Sakura's brief moment of indecision hadn't been lost on her.

"I've rarely seen you so desperate. You really _were_ worried about me," Sakura said, eager to change the conversation, yet her smile growing into a fond one. She was feeling oddly at peace, after exposing to the blonde that wailing vulnerability she strived so hard to hide, that which she took as a mortifying weakness, gnawing at her heart, filling her with guilt. She felt _light-cleansed-revived_.

"I wasn't desperate: you were just too damn dumb to get it all immediately," Ino defended, playing false indignation. "And, as for being worried…well, duh, Forehead."

"I too was quite worried," a voice said from behind Sakura. "Worried this theatrical soap opera moment both of you indulged in would stretch on forever."

Sakura whirled around and found the Hokage, wide awake and seemingly refreshed, chin leisurely set on her right hand, an amused smile tugging at her lips as she considered both young girls.

"Shi-shishou!"

For how long had she been awake? Had she seen that unsightly moment of weakness of hers?

And Sakura felt a rush of heat take over her cheeks and neck. Ino, on the other hand, seemed at a loss, confused as to how to deal with the elderly woman.

"Rest assured. My…_meditation_ was so profound I didn't have to suffer through all of your heart-felt dialogue," Tsunade notified, taking in Sakura's blatant embarrassment. _And utterly enjoying it_, Sakura noticed, exasperated. Why must she be surrounded by people only keen on teasing her to oblivion?

"Meditation?" Ino couldn't help but interject, before breaking into a cough that looked suspiciously like a chuckle.

"Are you well-rested then, shishou?" Sakura asked, pointedly elbowing Ino in the ribs. She really wasn't ready for the Hokage's legendary short of a temper to kick in again, now that she didn't seem particularly keen on bashing their heads together.

Tsunade gave her pupil a long, deep gaze, her sharp falcon eyes peering right through blood and bones, reaching the confines of Sakura's mind. The young kunoichi shifted, growing self-conscious under the scrutinizing amber pupils of her master.

"Are you?" Tsunade replied at last, and there was concern etched on her tired features.

That was so unexpected a response that Sakura didn't know how she was to answer.

"I'm fine," she replied, uncertainty lacing her every word.

"I know you are, but that's not what I'm asking, am I?" Tsunade said, and Sakura knew that the Hokage _knew_ just how empty she felt, devoid of energy and strength and will to muster it all, her whole being longing only for respite, and yet unable to get away, held down by that invisible but palpable string tying her to that bleak hospital bed in that bleak hospital room.

"Sakura, go home," Tsunade said when Sakura failed to answer.

"What?" Sakura weakly exclaimed, getting more confused by the minute.

"Go home," Tsunade repeated softly.

_Home?_

Where was that again? When was the last time she'd been there, a week ago? A decade? Ever?

She couldn't recall.

"I can't," Sakura replied. "I have to be here when he…"

She trailed off, suddenly alarmed at the pang tugging at her heart.

_I have to be here when he wakes up. _

Tug-tug-tug.

_I have to stay by his side._

Throb-throb-throb.

_What the…? Why am I…?_

What was that pain she felt in her chest? It was familiar, a reminiscence of a past life, a _guilty-guilty-guilty_ feeling, she knew.

_No-no-no._

_I won't. _

"Sakura?" Ino called out to her, her concerned voice echoing from far away.

"No. I can't. He's my responsibility," she finally replied, forcefully snapping out of her anguish, burying all of those unnecessary, unnecessary thoughts deep inside, well-hidden, out of her own reach.

_Only a responsibility._

Tsunade's eyes never left her, and there it was again, that disagreeable sensation of being open and searched, giving away more than she could afford to know herself.

"Sakura, you're barely standing. Your chakra reserves have been exploited far too much this past few days. It's a wonder you haven't collapsed yet, but if you keep at it like this, you will falter when you will most need your power. In this state, you can't even protect yourself, let alone _anyone else_," the Godaime affirmed sternly, yet with softened eyes.

"I'll stand guard until you come back," Ino assured. "That's why I'm here to begin with."

"Which settles the matter of his safety," Tsunade concluded, nodding approvingly after sharply eyeing the blonde. "Go. Rest. Come back only when you're up to it," she added, voice gentle.

Sakura wordlessly, helplessly looked back and forth between her best friend and her master, the mist that had been fogging her brain when she had just left the sealing room earlier in the night returning thicker than ever, hindering her thinking process, leaving her debilitated and weak, _so weak_ and _so unsightly_.

"Sakura, you really should go," Ino insisted when Sakura remained immobile. "I've seen your mother on my way here, and she asked me about what exactly was going on. They've been hearing weird things about you, and they don't know what to think. I think they're really worried."

"What do you mean?" Tsunade inquired, eyes dangerously narrowing as she turned her amber glare on Sakura. "I thought that had been taken care of. I have _expressly_ asked you to clear everything with your parents, haven't I?"

The Godaime's threatening tone instantly cleared the numbness taking over her mind.

_Shit. _

She had been avoiding dealing with her parents, and had blatantly and pointedly ignored the Godaime's order to do so, focusing on Sasuke's sentence then and how to annul it, spending the previous night in her office and trying not to think about home and how her decisions would impact it.

Glacial grey eyes flashed in her mind and Sakura bit her lip. It wasn't that she had disregarded orders. The dread of going home to accusing grey eyes, when she had already been cornered from all sides by counselors and schemes and death sentences, had been too much for her. So Sakura had done what she did best in those situations: she fled. And waited. And maybe, just maybe, hoped it would resolve itself by itself, while she fought on a whole other level.

But she couldn't say all of these things to the Hokage, now, could she? So she kept silent. And tried hard to ignore the throb that constricted her heart whenever she thought about leaving him.

Seconds withered by, silent and weary, not easing that singular pain, nor softening Tsunade's indignant glare.

"So," the Godaime began, the edge of disapproval cutting through silence's wispy veil like a blunted axe, "I gather it you went against direct orders."

Sakura could feel Ino's apologetic eyes warily going back and forth between Tsunade and her. _It's okay, don't worry_, she wanted to tell her. _It's me. I'm the weak one here._

But her lips stayed sealed, and she finally realized: she was exhausted. Too exhausted to even put up a fight.

They were right. She wouldn't be of any help in that state.

As the Hokage's fulgurous falcon eyes turned to ominous slits of dim yellow irritation, as her hard line of a mouth parted to let out whatever scornful, loud remonstrance she was about to admonish, Sakura bowed, as respectfully and dignifiedly as she could, never taking her eyes from the Hokage's.

"I am deeply sorry, shishou," she said, sincerity shaping her every word. "This will be the last time I'll ever disappoint you." Then, as her stance seemed to have shocked her master speechless, she swiftly turned to Ino, adding, "I'll leave Sasuke in your care, then."

Yes, she couldn't afford to put up a tough façade. She couldn't afford to take it all upon herself. She had a duty, to Sasuke and to herself (_and to him whose slumber is deepest_), to be as healthy and calm and rested, as master of her own body as she could. Exhausting herself to an early death wasn't just childish, it was _unforgivable_. She was no longer a child pretending to be bigger than she really was.

_And in due time…_

"I'll be going then," she said to no one in particular.

No one in particular? _Lies again_, a voice sing-songed cruelly at the back of her mind, as she took one last glance to the peaceful rise and fall of Sasuke's chest.

She was almost out of the room when Tsunade called out to her one last time.

"Yes, shishou?" she inquired with a voice as even as she could muster, feeling the Hokage and Ino's eyes on her back.

"You've never been a disappointment."

One, two, three.

The words sank in, and she felt a mix of intertwining emotions claim her heart. Mainly overwhelming relief, which strained her throat and made her fingers tremble and her heart ache with gratitude.

So much dust in those South Wings chambers. Made her eyes water…

Sakura stiffly nodded before setting out, as swift as her legs allowed, down the hallways, past the Hospital's main gates, into the fresh air. Dusk was settling outside, a dark magenta sky shyly displaying the first stars, the pebbled road already taking on the silvery hues of the ghostly light the crescent of a moon radiated.

She was running home.

Then why, oh _why_, did she feel like some of it had been left behind, on a bleak hospital bed?

* * *

"Is Ibiki really alright with his lieutenant playing nurse to the infamous Uchiha?" Tsunade asked once Sakura's echoing footsteps faded away.

"Lieutenant? I don't recall being _that_ important," Ino replied absently, not taking her eyes of the doorway, even though that red-clad, sturdy back had long disappeared.

_Don't give me your back to watch, Sakura. _

And what was that about "leaving Sasuke in her care"? Since when did she talk so formally? Damn her for always overdoing it…

As she remembered her friend's eyes , dead pupils of green grim determination, she felt her heart falter.

_Don't grow so fast where I can't watch you._

"Don't play dumb with me, Ino."

Ino turned to face the Hokage. Those amber eyes held that hint of tenderness they had taken when she had last spoken to Sakura no longer. They were shrewd, sharp, _knowing_.

"I've asked Ibiki-san for some time for myself. He didn't object. And I don't think volunteer hospital shifts go against regulations, no?" Ino explained with a hint of feigned innocence.

The Hokage smiled, amused.

"Sakura wouldn't like that," the Hokage sighed as she stood up, preparing to leave.

"Whether we're willing to help her or not isn't for Sakura to decide," Ino answered fiercely.

Ah, no, what was she doing, opening herself up so blatantly like that? She wasn't Ibiki's favorite for nothing: she had come to completely master herself, her expressions, her voice intonations, playing with them at will to seduce, coax or terrorize anyone, playing, playing, playing with the strings they so, so easily surrendered to her…

The Hokage's smile widened, though now tinged with bittersweet sadness.

"She's your lifeboat, isn't she?"

"Pardon?" Ino said, genuinely taken aback.

"Sakura. She's your landmark. As long as she's by your side, you'll never lose sight of yourself," Tsunade elaborated, her eyes softening again.

It had been a long time since Ino had gaped so stupidly at anyone. _Refreshing, isn't it?_ a little voice quipped within the confines of her mind.

When had she given away so much?

_No. Regain control. Now._

"I have to confess I don't understand what you're trying to say, Hokage-sama," she carefully dodged, a fake puzzled smile displayed on her lips.

"You understand it all _too_ well, Ino," the Hokage retorted, unfazed, arching her brow in an "_I'm-no-fool_" fashion. "And I think _he_'s beginning to as well," she added, pensively gauging Sasuke with scrutinizing eyes.

In two decisive strides, the elderly woman was beside her. Ino was then surprised to feel a warm hand softly squeeze her shoulder.

"At least am I relieved to know that she has such a determined friend by her side," she softly confessed, before leaving in a rustle of rippling cloak, her footsteps echoing along the walls, her words resounding within Ino long after wispy silence claimed the room.

_Gimme a break already._

When she found a way to move her limbs again, Ino ponderously walked over to the chair in the corner, carried it to Sasuke's bedside before plopping down on it, considering the emaciated features of the young man for some time, trying to find traces of the thirteen-year-old dark genius in this thin, battered man.

"I didn't protect you," she said softly, knowing full well that he couldn't hear her.

She had asked Ibiki to let her stay that one out, when they had brought in Sasuke for interrogation, immediately after Naruto's death. The man had considered her with dark, unreadable eyes that could see through flesh and bone and blood and get to the very heart of everything. He had dismissed her with a nod, and she went away, feeling reduced and humiliated for having shown the merest hint of vulnerability. Still she had watched from the sidelines as they had beaten him bloody, powerless and morbidly fascinated.

_Is this really the man I've loved for so long?_ she had wondered time and again.

He could be broken, like any other man. Broken and mentally dissected and so, so low.

_Is this really you, Sasuke-kun? Or have I just failed, all this time, to _**see you**_?_

And she had watched through it all. Through his dark apathy at being toyed around endlessly, to his sudden mad rampage, to his truly broken state. She had been there when he'd asked for Sakura, and she had told herself that the numb pang of hurt she'd felt at that moment was just a reminiscence of what would have been in a past life, when Sakura and her were still rivals for the handsome dark prodigy's (_non-existent_) affections.

"I should have protected you," she let out, the words wringing out of her strained throat like sobs.

Only silence answered the heavy apology weighing on her heart.

* * *

**Author's final note:** Phew! This was one freaking long of a chapter to write.

I'd like to think that Ino would be a lot darker than what the manga suggests, as her talents would be sought after by Ibiki. She's such a marvelous character to write.

Also, reviewing motivates the author to upload with more diligence (…not, hahaha *is shot again*).


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